


A journey to remember

by SinfulLuca



Series: Is not about the destination [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Black & White | Pokemon Black and White Versions
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2019-04-07 04:45:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14073177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SinfulLuca/pseuds/SinfulLuca
Summary: Since they were children, Cheren had know he was going to become the strongest trainer of them all.Bianca, on the other hand, still didn’t know what to do with her life. That never stopped her from giving her all in anything she tried, though.But Touya was nothing like them. He was not decisive like Cheren nor as lively as Bianca. He wasn’t brave nor inteligent. He was forgettable and easy to sway.Maybe this journey could change him...





	1. A friend in a box

He stares at the box.

It had been less than an hour since Professor Juniper had left it at his house, but he already felt as if he was going to explode from the excitement. He was finally going to be a pokemon trainer!

Which one was he going to get?!

Maybe a Tepig? to maintain him warm in those dark nights.

Or maybe a Snivy! ... but was he even capable of training such an elegant pokemon?

Oshawott sounded great too. Not all of Unova was next to the sea like Nuvema, but having an Oshawott would be like having home next to him. That really sounded nice, he really hoped that neither Cheren nor Bianca would want that one...

"Touya! Cheren and Bianca are here!" His mother shouted, immediately interrupting his thoughts.

"Are they here?!" He heard the excited voice of Bianca.

"Don't stop in the middle of the stairs!"

"Ooh, sorry Cheren."

Touya couldn't contain a laugh.

"You haven't opened it yet?" Said Cheren after seeing the box.

"Well, it was either waiting for you or running away with all three of them." Touya responds as he sits down in front of the box.

Bianca and Cheren didn't take long to follow in Touya's steps. Bianca almost tripping over the rug in her excitement.

Touya opens the box, and he couldn't help but smile.

Inside were 3 shiny new pokeballs and a letter that Cheren immediately took. Maybe Touya should read it too... or maybe he could say hi to their new friends.

Both he and Bianca took the pokeballs and released the 3 pokemon inside them.

From the first ones came out Snivy, the grass snake pokemon. Landing with grace and a smug expression.

From the second one comes Tepig, the fire pig pokemon. It's landing anything but smooth, far more interested in the new world around him.

And finally, Oshawott. The otter immediately hid behind his Tepig friend. His shy nature immediately obvious to everyone.

"So, who is going to choose first?" Bianca asked.

"Maybe you should, Bianca." Cheren replied.

"Me?! I still don't know..."

"Neither do I... Emboar sounds like a formidable pokemon but Serperior's speed is impressive too."

While his friends decided, Touya took the opportunity to get the Oshawott from behind the Tepig. The little pokemon shouldn't fear them after all.

"Maybe Touya should do it."

"What?"

"Pick first, the professor left the pokemon at your house after all."

"Really? Ooh, well... I ..."

He looked at the Oshawott and smiled. Maybe together they could learn to be more assertive...

But before he could say anything, the Snivy jumped towards him and sat on his shoulders. The snake had been looking at them both. Oshawott AND the soft spoken trainer? Heck no! They would be eaten alive by the world outside. Snivy saw no other option but to protect the poor boy himself.

"Eeeh... hello?"

"Awww, he really likes you!" Bianca couldn't help but laugh at her friends confused expression.

"Well, seeing that you have made your choice-"

"I want Oshawott!" Bianca said, hugging the Oshawott immediately.

"... I wanted Tepig anyway."

Touya laughed again, a little confused. He really wasn't expecting for this to go like this at all.

"Hello." He says as he takes his new friend. The Snivy didn't look that happy to be grabbed like that. Touya really hopes they could become friends...

"My name is Touya and I'm your new trainer. Hope we can get along... eeeh.... Francis?" The Snivy looks confused for a moment before frowning... well, Touya thinks that's how snakes frown...

"Arthur?" Ok, that one really was a frown.

"Eeeh... Charles?" Oh! Come on! The names wasn't that bad! This Snivy...

"I'm running out of names... Adrien? Do you like that one? Is either that or just Snivy." Snivy appeared to think for a moment ... it appear to Touya that way, at least... and then he nodded.

"Nice to meet you, Adrien."

"We should have a fight!" Bianca said, almost making Touya jump by the surprise. He asked himself again why were this 2 guys his best friends.

"I don't think that's the best ide-"

"Ooh, please Cheren! They are so little! Is not like they can destroy much yet."

"... What do you think Touya? This is your room after all."

But before he could even answer, Adrien jumped in front of Bianca in a battle pose.

"...I think that's a yes."

And thus, Touya's journey started. Not with a bang, nor a whimper, but with his room destroyed.

 

Adrien's Imagination.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was replaying Pokemon Black... and then I got that Isshushiping itch ... and then this appeared.
> 
> The dialogues aren't going to be exactly the same because that's not fun! ... I also feel they are a little stiff in-game >_>"
> 
> Feel free to note any grammatical errors, english is not really my forte ^^"


	2. Strange encounters

Pokemon... liberation.

The man had said that.

Could he really be right? Touya couldn't help but hug Adrien tighter.

"What?!" Cheren almost shouted as the weird guys left. "How could they say something like that?! Pokemon and humans are meant to be together!"

"... But... is that really true? Do pokemon really enjoy battle? Are we really good for them?"

Adrien started moving in Touya's arms, he looked angry, did he wanted to be put down...?

"You really think that?" Touya felt a breath next to his ear and he couldn't help but scream. Next to him was a _really_ tall man with green (?!) hair. He was looking at Adrien with a thoughtful look.

"See, Touya? he also gets it, pokemon and humans are meant to be together."

"I wasn't talking to you." The stranger rapidly said, without even looking at Cheren.

"What?!" Cheren almost shouted but the stranger focus was solely on Adrien who had not stopped moving in Touya's arms.

Touya didn't know what to do. The stranger appeared to be more interested in whatever Adrien was trying to convey. Such a weird person. Not only did he had _green_ hair but it was also extremely long, Touya couldn't imagine living with that much hair. Ooh, he had a Purrlo -

"You just said you just meet him, he might mistreat you." - Wait, what?

"Adrien, you say, no? Well, I have never meet a trai-" Wait, WHAT?!

"Wait, WHAT?! How do you know that?!"

"Know what?"

"The name of my Snivy."

"He... told me?" The stranger said confused.

"Pokemon can't talk." Cheren intervened.

"They can- ooh... you also can't understand them..." The stranger looked away, a shadow of sadness appearing over his eyes.

Touya was extremely confused.

"It's that... a pokedex?" He immediately asked. This man appeared to be a fan of non-sequiturs.

"Yes, We have been tasked to complete it." Cheren couldn't help but answer proudly. The stranger frowned at this.

"So you are to confine every single pokemon just to fill it? And then what?"

Touya was left speechless at this. It was true. There were breeders that only wished to find the perfect pokemon, there were hunters that were only interested in the rarest of pokemon.

Was being a trainer truly good?

Touya was taken away from his thoughts by the sound of a hiss.

"Why are you mad? I'm trying to protect you, who knows what this person might do."

Adrien hissed more, every second looking more angry than the one before. At some point Adrien started using Vine Whip without qualm.

"Hey! Stop!" But before the Snivy could do anything to the stranger, his Purrloin jumped before him.

The Purrloin scratched back at Adrian, but the Snivy tackled back, infuriated.

"Adrien, no!" Both Touya and the stranger took their pokemon before the battle had gotten out of control.

"I'm so sorry, I don't know what happened. I'm truly sorry Mr - eeh... well."

"N, my name is N. Mmm... Why would he protect you? that's not right..." The stranger... N - was that even a name?! - left. He appeared to keep talking to himself, lost in thought.  
  
Touya still doubt this had happened at all...

"... What the heck just happened?" Touya had to ask.

"What a creeper. He must have heard you in the Pokemon Center." Cheren said as N disappeared into the distance. "Well, let's better forget about this ridiculousness. I'm going to Striaton City, that's where the nearest Gym is. What’s your plan?"

"Mmm... I still don't know. Maybe I'll be doing the same... See you later?"

"Of course, let's see who can become the strongest."

Touya waved at Cheren, but when he finally disappeared, he had to ask...

"Hey, Adrien... did you really... told him your name?" The Snivy looked up and nodded. He appeared to be still mad at N.

So it had to be true. Touya never saw this N before, how could he have known? Did he really had the gift to understand pokemon?

He asked himself why someone like him could believe that pokemon were better left without humans.

Were humans really that bad?

Adrien tugged at Touya's jacket, tired of just standing in the middle of the town.

Touya stared at his pokemon. He might not know the truth yet, but maybe one day he would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "There were breeders that only wished to find the perfect pokemon" *sweats* totally not me...
> 
> Adrien's nature is rash, as you can see ^u^


	3. New experiences

Touya and his pokemon had been training for a while.   
  
After reaching Nacrene City, he had decided that training was a far better idea than immediately going after the Gym, he haven't been that confident in being able to defeat the leader.

The training session had ended in a success. Not only had Adrien finally evolved into a Servine, but he also got to pass some quality time with Amara - the Drilbur he had just captured after defeating those Plasma grunts in her cave. She had followed the grunts but after losing their trail, she decided to just follow Touya instead.

He had tried previously to catch a Purrloin but Adrien didn't seem to happy after the encounter with that stange green haired trainer. A Pidove had also seem like a nice addition but, again, Adrien didn't seem to like flying types. Touya really had to work in disciplining him...

After resting for a while in the Pokemon Center, Touya decided to check out the museum. He took one of the brochures at the entrance and-

"Ooh - I'm really sorry, I should have - It's you!" Touya couldn't help but shout in surprise. He had just crashed with the green haired trainer, En or something like that?

"You... you are that Snivy's trainer."

"Yes, sorry about Adrien, he’s a little rash..."

"Ah." Ah... just that?! what was he supposed to respond?! He couldn't just leave, could he? He could already hear the voice of his mother ' _I didn't raise you to have such manners, young man!_ '... What would his mother do in his place? Well... she would totally invite him for tea or something, his mother would never skip the opportunity to chat with someone... but he would, and N (?) didn't appear to be the chaty type either... He was going to regret this, wasn't he?

"Eeh, how about if I... invite you a drink or something?"

"...What?"

"There is this cafe at the edge of town and - and maybe I could invite you? As an apology for my Snivy kinda attacking you in Accumula..."

"...Sure."

"Ooh... eh, let's go then." Oh god, he _was_ already regretting this.

The cafe Touya had seen wasn't too far away from the museum, so it didn't take long for them to get there.

"Welcome to Cafe Warehouse, what will be your order?" The barista asked.

"Ooh, well..." Touya looked at the menu for a moment... "A Cappuccino, please?"

"And for you?"

"..."

"... She’s asking you."

"Eeh?... the same?"

"2 Cappuccinos in a moment."

"..." Awkwaaaaaaaaard...

"So... you said your name was N, no?"

"Yeah... and you're Touya."

"Eeh, yes. I never introduced myself properly, did I?" Touya tried to laugh casually but it didn't go as he was planing. Thankfully it didn't took much longer for their drinks to arrive. Touya gave one to N and paid the barista.

"So, would you prefer to sit here or outside." Touya asked, but N appeared to be more interested in staring at his drink. "N?"

"... Outside?"

"Sure." Touya guided them both to the furthermost of the tables that were outside of the cafe, away from the other customers.

"You captured another pokemon." N said, surprising Touya.

"Oh, yeah. A Drilbur from a cave around here."

"...Can I see them?"

"Sure." Touya took both of his pokeballs and let his friends out. Seconds later, he regretted this decision.

The moment Adrien saw who his trainer was sitting with, he had to hiss. Him again?!

"Adrien, stop." The Servine was extremely confused at this. He was just protecting Touya from the human bush!

"I'm sorry for upsetting you the last time. I hope we can start over, Adrien." The _bush_ offered Adrien a hand, but instead the Servine went and sat in the legs of his trainer. Touya almost was able to contain his laugh, almost.

"Hello to you too." Seeing his tremendous failing, this time N decided to talk to Amara. From the part of the conversation that Touya could hear, they were talking about the Drilbur's life before she followed Touya.

"Some humans in strange blue clothes..." After that N was quiet for a while. If Touya remembered right, N was in the side of Team Plasma that time in the rally. It must be a shock to know that in reality they were a bunch of assholes.

Now that he thought about the first time they meet... "Where is your Purrloin?"

"What? I don't have a Purrloin?"

"Eeh, yes you did? The one that was with you when we first meet." As if just to prove him right, the pokemon in question appeared behind N. "There!"

"There what?" As if in a cartoon, the Purrloin hid again, just to spit him or something. But as if they had rehearsed, now a Pidove had appeared. "How many pokemon do you have in your hair?!"

"Eeh... one?" N reached towards his hair and-

"A Zorua, of course it was a Zorua." The pokemon in question jumped out of N's arms and into their table. Touya extended his arm to pet the turf of fur on top of it's head. N looking on edge as he did so.

"Hey... why do you dislike trainers so much?"

"Why wouldn't I dislike them?" N almost retaliated, something Touya wasn't really expecting.

"They capture pokemon just to make them fight till they can't stand anymore. They only exist to make pokemon suffer."

"... I haven't been a trainer for that long but... I haven't seen any of that." For a moment N's eyes widen, as if just remembering that yes, Touya was also in a quest for the Gym Badges, as so many others.

"Of course you don't see it. You are a trainer. You - you - you can't even understand pokemon. How would you know what they feel, what they need? Trainers don't care for them! Humans should left pokemon alone, that way they can be happy." It was as if N had changed into a completely different person, his lax expression changing into one full of rage and impotence. Of pain.

"Maybe I can't understand pokemon like you do, but I know when they are hurt or sad or mad. And I... I do care, I really do care. I don't want anything to happen to Adrien or Amara or any other pokemon. And so do my friends and most trainers I have meet. But do you know who doesn't care? Team Plasma! Those guys from the 'pokemon liberation' rally? I have seen them not only stealing pokemon from other people but abusing of them. How can you be on the side of people like them?!" That was when Touya’s brain caught up with his mouth. He felt the impulse to cover his mouth after the outburst but the damage was already done. Not only were the other customers staring at him, but N appeared to be in shock.

"Team Plasma... what?" N didn't say anything more for a while, looking shocked.

"S-sorry, I didn't mean-"

"I have to go." And before Touya could even apologies properly, N had left.

He looked down at the place that N had occupied just moments before, at the cold and forgotten cup of cappuccino. He couldn’t help but felt just like it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *throws canon out of the window* ups
> 
> I kinda want to make an extra chapter about what happened to N after this, because, man, Touya's POV doesn't even show the existential crisis N had between this and the next chapter.
> 
> I wanted a coffee/pokemon pun and the only one that came to me was "Unimano" (Unima is the name of Unova in italian) but I didn't feel that Touya was the type of person that would like Americano...
> 
> Also, I passed a long time thinking about Touya's team and their personalities and here I am, barely using them >_>
> 
> Touya's team:  
> Adrien - Servine - Rash - Jealous snake  
> Amara - Drilbur - Hardy - The mom friend that will protect her children.


	4. At the top of the world

It was too damn early...  
  
Well, it was 9 am but after the day he had yesterday...

Just the day before Touya had arrived to Nimbasa City.Castelia had been impressive in its own right. Even the smallest skyscraper dwarfin everything that Touya had previously know. But Nimbasa was completely different.

Castelia city had made him feel insignificant, like he was just one more person running around the streets, without a destination in mind. But Nimbasa? Ooh, Nimbasa. The lights from the city where like a beacon in the desert - illuminating everything with the sole purpose of attracting you. But within the city they were even brighter. It made him feel like one of the stars from Pokewood. Like he mattered.

The previous day had been already tiring. He had tried out his luck in the Battle Subway and it went... well... Adrien's ego was still a little hurt. Later he had found Bianca and, by her insistence, they had go to see one of the musicals. Touya was expecting to watch some of the classics, like The Banette of the Opera or whatever, but instead they ended going to see a weird combination between Unovan story and hip hop, he really wasn't expecting _that_.

He would have liked to end the night chating in the Pokemon Center with Bianca but the surprise appearance of her father had sent that idea out of the window.

After such a day he was ready to be dead to the world, shamefully he didn't take in account how bright _everything_ was. The whole night was filled with him rolling around and wishing he was a pokemon so he could just sleep inside a dark and quiet pokeball.

So _yes_ , 9 am was to damn early to be up and around trying to stop stupid Team Plasma from terrorizing people. Seriously, what was wrong with this people?! He had at least gotten a bike out of that... did he even remembered how to use one? Well, no time for that, he still had to stop the grunts.

He somehow was able to put the folded bike inside his bag - not ready to discover if what they said about never forgetting how to ride was true or not - and ran towards the amusement park... and immediately gave up in his quest for the grunts.

The park was not only huge, but there was so many people that Touya almost got dizzy. It had to be impossible to find someone here, no matter how weirdly they were dressed.

Touya wandered for a while. He bought some food and looked at the attractions from afar. He still had a little hope that he would be able to find the Plasma grunts but honestly, at this point he was just enjoying the walk.

But no matter how lost was Touya in his own mind, he could never miss _him._

There _, s_ itting on a bench near the ferris wheel was N. He looked incredibly uncomfortable with so many people around. He was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, thing that was really not working thanks to his hair color and how tall he looked even when sitting down.

"Hey, N!" The moment Touya spoke, N looked at him. He stood there for a while, surprise written all over his face that changed to something Touya couldn’t interpret. Moments later, N had stood up and was in front of Touya in mere seconds, looking extremely nervous.

"Touya, I was waiting for you, I really wanted to ride the ferris wheel but then I remembered that the gym was here so it was likely that you would pass through here so would yourideitwithme?."

"Slow down!" N shut up almost immediately, getting even more nervous than before, crushing whatever was in between his hands. "So, what were you saying?"

N took a big breath "Would you ride the ferris wheel with me?" And offered him the thing that had been in between his hands - an almost destroyed ticket to the ferris wheel.

Wait... N waited for him... and wanted to ride the ferris wheel with him... was that... a date?!... N was inviting him to a date, wasn't he? It _had_ to be. He bought tickets before hand and waited for him in a place that was obviously uncomfortable for him. How could this be not a date?! No, no maybe he was overreacting, how could N want to-

"That's a... no?" N appeared to deflate, making Touya feel like the worst person in the world.

"No no no! I was just surprised, I-we-eeh, yeah, let's got to the ferris wheel." And then N smiled. It was a small smile, but so bright. It lighted something inside of Touya. This was a bad idea.

They walked together towards the ferris wheel. The attendant looked at their crumbled tickets weirdly but said nothing as she let them pass.

Touya was the first to sit down. He was expecting N to sit in front of him but the taller one decided that siting just next to him in the small booth was a better idea. There was barely enough space for their legs to not be touching. This was going to end really badly, wasn’t it?

"I love ferris wheels. The mechanics of them are marvelous. How important is it to balance the size and speed so that the centripetal force won't crush the passengers in the bottom. I've always wanted to ride one!" For a moment Touya had a war flashback from physics class.

"Wait, you sound like you know a lot about ferris wheels, but you have never ride one?"

"No." N was looking at the window. But he was not looking at impressive vistas of the park nor the mountains far away, he was looking at the metal contraption that was the ferris wheel, trying to get the best view of it's internal mechanism.

Touya couldn't contain his laugh. This man-

"Something wrong?" N asked, confusion all over his face.

"Yes-no, well. Sorry, is just that... Most people like the ferris wheel for the sights, not the mechanics." N frowned and looked at Touya. Betrayal written all over his face.

"I-I didn't mean it like that." 5 seconds, it took 5 seconds for Touya to screw this up. "I never got things like math and physics, but you talk as if ... you really understood them?"

"... You make it sound as if those were hard subjects."

"Because they are! I-I don't even get how some people see the world and instead of leaves or dirt or mountains, they see... math and numbers and... and how is that possible? But... but because of that... they make awesome things! They made tvs and videogames and xtransceivers ad ferris wheels and... and that's incredible."

N stared at Touya. An unreadable expression all over his face. Had Touya made an even bigger fool out of himself? He should just threw himself out of the Ferris Wheel, better for everyone-

"...Do you like me?"

"What?!" Touya felt a heat creep into his face. That was a blush, right? Oh god, that _had_ to be a blush.

N didn't bother to answer back. He just kept staring. Those eyes were going to kill Touya sooner or later.

So.. .did he like N? Well, he was weird. He was really passionate about pokemon AND math, like... how? Was he even real? Even if Touya had known N almost from the start of his journey, they haven't passed that much time together, but Touya felt as if he already know what kind of person N was: someone that fought for his ideals, no matter the cost. That was something that really impressed Touya. He had never been someone with the passion to fight for his beliefs, much less to fight for them until his last breath. Yet, here was N. Someone that truly believed in his ideals. Someone that, instead of intimidating Touya into silence, made him want to fight for his own ideals.

"...Yes. I really like you. You... you are so passionate about... about the things you like and you really care, a-about pokemon and..." _and about me_ ... Oooh... How sad was that?  
  
He felt that N, this man he had only meet 3 times, listened to him more than Cheren or Bianca, his supposed best friends.

Touya looked out of the window, towards the mountains in the north,feeling as if he had revealed too much. He tried to stop thinking about all of this and just enjoy the beautiful vistas but...

He couldn't help but look.

N was staring at him, with an expression Touya couldn't really decipher, but one part of him couldn't help but think " _He likes you as much as you like him_ ".

And then it all came crashing down.

He didn't like N. He _Liked_ N. He really liked this tall green haired man that loved math and pokemon and that had fought against his anxiety to take him to the ferris wheel.  
  
In his epiphany, Touya didn't notice how hot had his face gotten. How close he had moved towards N.

N's sight immediately ran away from Touya's own. Touya felt ashamed at making him uncomfortable but before he could move, the shy eyes of N caught his yet again.

Touya thought he finally knew what it felt like for someone to take your breath away. It had been af is time had stopped.

It was as if Dialga itself was giving Touya the opportunity to do _something_.

...

Oh, no, Touya, STOP! He was going to ruin this, wasn't he?! He was going to make the biggest stupidity in the world and scare N away. He finally found someone that listened to him and was handsome and he was going to scare him away-

"Eeh, Sirs? the ride has ended..." Touya almost jumping while on his seat at the voice of the Ferris Wheel attendant that was trying to get their attention.

"Ooh, eeh.. yeah... sorry." Touya and N left the gondola, making Touya immediately miss it when they found themselves in the middle of the crowded park again. Was Touya going to-? Oh, god, what was wrong with him?! He barely knew this man. Seriously Touya?! -

"...I have to go." N said so fast and in such a sudden way that Touya almost didn't noticed what the other had said.

"W-what? Already?! W-we could go to... eeh... it was really fun... Thanks for taking me there." Something inside Touya wanted to go back to the ferris wheel and pass at least a little more time with N. His logical part asked yet again what was _wrong_ with him.."See you later?"

N started a Touya for a moment, appearing surprised at what Touya had said. "Sure. See you later."

And even when N's tall figure had disappeared into the crowd, Touya still couldn't stop his heart from beating so fast. Fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Touya, you useless homosexual!!  
>  ~~That was in the prose like 5 times but I was able to restrain myself~~
> 
> I just cheked and is called Pokestar studios instead of Pokewood in the english version... But Pokewood sounds funnier ò.o
> 
> Originally the "classic" that Touya thought they were going to see was Swannleo and Joltikette, the story of the forbidden love of a bug eater and a bird zapper, Truly a classic!  
> ... and then I remembered that Romeo and Juliet is not a musical...
> 
> Other ideas I had:  
> Purrloins  
> Beauty and the Garbador... the Zoroark? idk  
> The Pyroar King (Does that mean there is a pokemon version of Disney? like... this is a whole new world of bad pokemon puns!!)  
> The Book of Kyurem (of Mew? what is the state of the pokemon religions?! So much worldbuilding potential!!)


	5. Something in the dark

Touya really didn't want to get into _that_ cave. It was dark and quiet and it was covered by a giant spider web, Who would get in there?!

...

Apparently him, because the only way to the 6th gym was thought this cave. It was either that or going back to Nimbasa and going all the way around to Black City. 

After a while he just took his flashlight and walked towards the entrance.

When Touya stepped into the cave, he was expecting to be attacked by a swarm of Galvantula or something. Instead, he was received by the most wonderful sight.

The cave was covered in luminescent rocks that appeared to produce energy. The color blue so out of this world that he was immediately reminded of how the Black Dragon must have looked.

He walked for a while. Almost falling more than once by how distracted he was by the glowing rocks. But he had to stop when he heard a conversation not that far from him. Well, _half_ of a conversation.

"I don't think that's the best way... Are you sure?... The story about your parents was lovely but I can’t make web like you, so that’s out of the question, the dance idea might work, thought.” Touya couldn’t even start thinking about what was N talking about but the way he said it made Touya laugh.

“Who’s there?!” N stood up from the crouching position he had been just a moment ago. But his expression rapidly changed from a frown to a surprised face the moment he saw Touya. “T-Touya!”

“Hey, it’s been a while. What are you doing here?”

“I have heard so many things about the Chargestone Cave, I had to see it for myself. Is still a mystery how is that the cave gets this much energy. There are some theories that estate that this area is full of elements like niobium and lead, this along with the high density of electric pokemon in this area let to the magnetic fields of the less conductive rocks to be supercharged. Sadly, the deeper you go, the stronger the magnetic fields gets, so is been a little hard to truly investigate this cave. The Opelucid university is planning an expedition in the next years, thought.” Touya was sure his brain had stopped working. He really had to study more if he had any hope to sustain a conversation with N because dear Arceus, this sounded like Johtonese to him.

“Ooh, cool? …” He needed a new topic _now_ What was there to talk about?!... “That’s a Joltik, no? I have never seen one” Touya crouched one in front of the little spider pokemon. He knew they were small but he never imagined how much.

The little spider inspected Touya for a moment before looking back at N with an expression full of mischievousness in its face.

“AAH!” The Joltik had gotten inside of Touya’s pants and it was now escalating him. Touya had to resist the urge to slap the little spider and was extremely glad when the pokemon finally stopped

…and then proceed to throw Touya’s hat off his head.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?!” Touya said playfully as he took his poor hat full of dirt.

That was when Touya heared N laugh. It was so full of joy to the point that it almost made Touya squeal like a little girl. Damn it, he thought he already had this stupid crush under control.

“So what were you two talking about?” Touya asked. N stopped laughing almost immediately.

“We were… eh… talking about... how her parents meet.” The Joltik started to make noises and jump around in Touya’s head. Apparently mad at N for saying that.

“... She’s making me think that that wasn’t all.”

N frowned at the Joltik before saying “We were not talking about anything else.”

The Joltik made an unhappy noise before hiding yet again in Touya’s hair. Touya had to laugh at that. That was when an idea occurred to him“... Hey, how about if… we… go together?” 

N blinked rapidly at him. “As in .. traveling together?”

“... Yeah… A-at least until the end of the cave! I-I don’t want to bother you…”

“No- I mean Yes! I want to go with you, you would never bother me.” Touya felt the Jotik jump and squeak at N’s words, Touya’s heart couldn’t help but imitate her. This crush was only going to get worse, wasn’t it?

They walked together for a while. More than once they came across incredible floating stones that stopped them from advancing. Touya did his best to open up a path for their travel to continue, but N appeared to be more interesting in studying the rocks than helping out.

“You captured another pokemon.” N said after a while of silence.

“Uuh? Eeh, well, not really.” He took his 3 pokeballs and let out his friends. Adrien was still his smug Servine self, he had been getting bigger to the point that it was hard for Touya to carry him in his shoulders, he must have not been far from evolving. Next to him stood Amara, the Drilbur had evolved into Excadrill in the fight against Clay - even so - she was still her warm and protective self. And last but not least…

“A Tirtouga!” N crouched down to say hello to Touya’s newest member. After the battle against Electra, he had taken a detour to Relic Castle. He couldn’t explore much of it but a nice adventurer had gifted him with Tirtouga fossil.

“I revived him just recently, so I really didn’t catch him.” The Tirtouga appeared to talk for a while with N, but after a while, the little turtle appeared to prefer to go back to sleep.

“.... You named him Arc.”

“Well, actually Archimedes but that's to long....”

“So… Adrien, Amara and Arc.”

“... Oh shit. I didn’t even notice.” The little Joltik that was still sitting in his hair started to jump again. Adrien had noticed this and tried to get the spider away from his trainer, but he wasn’t tall enough to reach that high… yet.

“What’s happening to her?”

“She… She’s saying her name is Ariana.”

“Oh my god, you are kidding, no?” Touya laughed but another happy squeak indicated Touya that no, his new 4-eyed hat also had a name that started with A. Wait…”Pokemon give names to each other?”

“Why wouldn’t they?” N frowned at this.

“Oh, of course, it makes sense. It would be weird if everyone had the same name. ‘Hello human’ ‘Human, how are you today?’” This brought a smile to N’s face.

“In reality that would be more like a human pronunciation, her names sounds more like -” At this, N produced a sound that Touya could only describe as the unholy sound that a human-spider hybrid would produce.

“...Ariana it is.” The Joltik squeaked yet again. Touya just hoped he would never have to heard that sound again in his whole life.

They kept walking and talking for a while. Amara appeared to be extremely happy to be back inside a cave. Touya couldn’t share her perspective, though. Arc had returned to his pokeball a while back, not really wanting to walk. Adrien, meanwhile, didn’t want to deal with the dust… and probably N.

It was not long before they reached a bridge, but…

“..I feel as if... someone was following us.” Touya said, puzzled. N immediately stopped at this. He looked really on edge.

“...Must be your imagination.” The way N said that didn’t convince Touya at all.

“I don’t know. Is just a feeling but…”

“Let’s get going.” N took Touya’s hand and almost manhandled him into the next floor of the cave. Touya was barely able to catch the poor Ariana. The sudden movement almost making the Joltik fall a height the equivalent of an spider skyscraper.

“What was that for?!”

“... I wanted to see what was down here.” N lied. Touya wanted to know what was happening here, but then he noticed something.

“Hey, where is Amara?” They both looked around, but there were no signs of the Excadrill. He looked in the vicinity for her. He was almost going to climb back up to keep looking when...

“AAAAH!” Immediately after that, Touya heard Amara growl. Without thinking twice, he ran towards the shout. What he found was a Plasma grunt being grabbed by Amara.

“Help!” The grunt shouted the moment he saw Touya appear. 

“What are you planing?!” Touya shouted as he got near the grunt and Amara, not thinking even in stopping her. He was sick of this people.

“N-nothing!”

“Oh, really? Every single time I have had to deal with Plasma, you have been abusing of someone and I’m tired of it!”

“N-no! I-it wasn’t me! I would never do something like that! I-I just came looking for someone! Please!” The man covered his face, losing all hope of being able to escape from the situation.

Touya deflated. He was attacking a Plasma grunt... He was being just like them, wasn’t him?

Amara looked at her trained confused. The complicated expression in Touya’s face being enough for her grasp in the Plasma grunt to stop.

Seconds later, the grunt had immediately disappeared without a sight.

With a heavy sight and a weight in his hear, Touya returned Amara to her pokeball and walked back to where he had last seen N.

It was a sight to see that N was still near the stairs but… what was that shadow? Touya tried to focus his sight in the dark blob but there appeared to be nothing. He must have imagined it.

“Sorry for that. Amara was… are you ok?” N didn’t even look at him, even when he was just 2 steps away from him. He appeared to be lost in thought. “... N?”

N startled at hearing Touya so near him. “I-I didn’t know you were there.” 

“Sorry.” Touya stared at N’s face. His eyes wouldn’t meet his. “...Let’s get out of here, ok?” 

N finally looked and him, a little surprised. “.... Please.” Without previous notice, the taller man took Touya’s hand in his own. in the surprise, Touya almost let go of N’s hand in a panic, but he got himself in control just in time. The same couldn’t be said of his heart, thought. This meant _nothing_.

They walked in silence. Right, right, left… They had to move some crystals and more than once they went the wrong way, but soon enough they found the exit.

“Wait,” Said Touya as he felt N pull from his hand to finally leave this place. Touya had almost forgotten at this point, but Ariana the Joltik was still sitting on his head. He took the little pokemon in his hand and left her on the floor. “Goodbye. Thanks for… for something?” Touya stood up again, but immediately felt Ariana climb up his leg again. “S-stop! You want to come with me or what?” Ariana started jumping at her new found home in Touya’s hair. 

“What’s she saying?” Touya asked N, but the taller man appeared to be more preoccupied.-. blushing?! He was blushing, no?!?!

“She- she really liked you, so she wants to come with you. Ju-just that!” Touya had to hold a laugh. N had to be the worse lier he had ever known. 

“Whatever you say.” He really wanted to know but he was a little scared that would take it to far. N was barely comfortable with people, maybe it was too soon to bother him till he spilled it out. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

N looked at him, surprised by the lack of questions from Touya. _‘Lord Ghetsis believes that boy to be the other hero’_ The shadow triad had said.

N took Touya’s hand on his own and knew they had to be right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Plasma appearing in this cave was so random, in-game and here |’D
> 
> Touya’s team up to this point:  
>  **Adrien the Servine:** A rash snake with a crush.  
>  **Amara the Excadrill:** The mom friend that will protect her babies.  
>  **Arc the Tirtouga:** Feels like an old man. Sleeps a lot.  
>  **Ariana the Joltik:** Touya x N fangirl. She has come to save us all.
> 
> At one point the original conversation between N and Ariana the Joltik had the phrase “Wh-What?! I’m not eating him!” It had to be taken off because N asked about how to conquer Touya’s heart, but eating the… partner comes _after_... Also, that takes the “lovely” part out of the story of Ariana’s parents.
> 
> Also, while I was planning the team I noticed that I had given the first 3 names that started with A… I couldn’t resist not doing the same for the other 3.


	6. A chiming bell

It was already night when they got out of the cave. Touya had never been this glad to smell fresh air but damn, he had missed it.

They didn’t have to walk long before they reached the Pokemon Center.

Touya stopped and looked at N. “So… what’s your plan?” He wasn’t looking forward to separating from N yet. Traveling with another human being had been refreshing; he wasn’t ready to say goodbye yet.

N looked at him for a while, lost in thought. “I don’t know.” N looked towards the north, at the starry sky. “I don’t think I have much time left, so I really want to go to the Celestial Tower.”

“Eh? you don’t have much time left?”

“Can we go?” _We_. All other thoughts inside of Touya’s brain stopped. N wanted to take Touya along. Neither of them wanted to separate just yet. His hearth couldn’t help but beat a little bit faster. Ariana, who was still on top of his head, started jumping too.

“Y-yes!” But the dark sky above them reminded him that maybe it was too late for that. “Eh, I mean, tomorrow. Let’s go tomorrow first thing in the morning? Is-is really late and I really need to sleep and… well…”

“Oh… true. Then we must find a place to camp.”

“E-eh, camp? We could sleep at the Pokemon Center?” N stared at him. He looked both scared and surprised at the same time. Why would-aah, right, N didn’t like humans. “Is really late, so most people must be already asleep.”Touya tried to smile reassuringly to N. Although, he didn’t feel that that would convince him. He expected the taller man to walk away and go alone…

“Ok”

“Uuh?”

“You wanted to go to the Pokemon Center…”

“Y-you are coming?!”

“I said so just a moment ago?” Touya smiled brightly. N, even with his confused and unsure expression, had accepted his offer.

There were more people awake in the Pokemon Center than what Touya had expected, but 2 people talking in a corner weren’t going to make him feel bad about getting that wrong. He got near the counter to ask about a room… and then it crashed into him. So… he was going to share a room with N, no? Oh, god, what was he going to do? Was N ok with this? Ok, ok, Touya, calm down, it wasn’t like you had to share a bed with your crush… right?!

“You’re lucky, we had just one Double room left.” The nurse said from behind the counter, she laughed and offered Touya a key. He thanked her after taking it and went looking for their room, N walking not far behind from him.

Their room was small and, thankfully, held two beds. There was also a little window that pointed towards the north. Touya imagined that in the morning they could get a look at that Celestial Tower that N wanted to visit.

“Which bed do you want?” N looked at him, a little surprised by the question.

“This one.” He sat down in the nearest bed to the window. That didn’t surprise Touya at all.

Touya set his backpack on his own bed and took his 3 pokeballs from his belt, letting out his pokemon.

Amara and Arc greeted N cheerfully. Adrien on the other hand, stared at him with a frown on his face.

“Come on, stop it.” Touya patted Adrien’s head. The Servine was still frowning but didn’t stop Touya's show of affection.

N was looking at Adrien with an expression he couldn’t classify. Touya needed more classes in human expressions. Maybe sadness? nah...mmm...

Was at that moment that someone pecked out of N’s ridiculous bush of hair. “Hey, is your Zorua.” The little pokemon jumped to N’s bed and then to the floor. Touya looked at N to make sure it was ok to pick the Zorua up, but the pokemon preferred to ignore whatever N thought and just jumped into Touya’s lap.

Adrien hissed at the new comer in his trainer’s lap. The Zorua appeared to smile mischievously and said something that left Adrien speechless. What th-?

“N-Nilbert!” N stood up and took Zoru- Nilbert in his hands. “Where did you learnt that?!” Scolded N.

“...What did I just miss?”

“N-nothing! Because a good pokemon doesn’t say things like that!.” N was looking directly at Nilbert’s eyes, in the most stern look he had seen him make. The Zorua appeared to find this hilarious, as he started to laugh… At least it sounded like that to Touya.

“What am I going to do with you?” N looked defeated for a moment. Nilbert had stopped laughing and was now smiling resurengly at N. The Zorua tried to pat the taller man but his paws were to short for that.

That was when a yawn escaped from Touya’s mouth. Damn, he was beat. He took his backpack and stood up. “Be right back, I’m going to change in the bathroom.”

He opened the door to the miniature bathroom. It was just like every other bathroom in every other Pokemon Center. Touya had always been surprised at how they had been able to put a toilet and a shower in the tiny area.

He considered for a moment to take a shower, but a monstruos yawn reminded him of how tired he was. He decided to left it for tomorrow.

Touya usually only slept in a shirt and his boxers. He doubt that would be acceptable tonight, thought, so to accompany his way too big Pokemon World Tournament shirt, he decided to wear an stupidly adorable pair of Phanpy-printed pajama pants.

After he was done changing, Touya opened the door and immediately regretted it. N was sitting on the bed, _shirtless and taking off his pants._. Touya’s whole face went immediately red. The room temperature had easily raised by fifty grades.

“Are you ok?” N asked, a little preoccupied about Touya’s unhealthy color. Touya tried to say that ‘ _no, he was not ok_ ’ but his brain was not ready to move from the fact that N was shirtless.

“Oh, Phanpies!” N’s face light up after noticing the little patterns in Touya’s pants. N tried to get nearer, to get a better look of the little elephants. That was when the panic alarm inside Touya’s head started to ring. N was too near and too shirtless. Touya was not ready to deal with this.

“G-GO-GOODNIGHT” Touya ran toward the light switch, and turned it off as fast as humanly possible. N made a confused noise, but at this point Touya had already gotten into his bed and covered his ears with the pillow. He wasn’t going to sleep tonight, was he?

* * *

Touya felt as if he was going to die.

As he had predicted, sleep never dared to make an apparition. His mind wouldn’t calm down, no matter how many mareep he counted or how much he tried to concentrate in anything but N. He hoped lack of sleep wouldn’t become a common part of his routine… _well_ , if it meant th-NO, NO. STOP. His brain wasn't going to go _There_.

N had woken up with the sun, because of course he was that kind of person. Touya had followed not much later, as he was sick of lying in his bed. He had taken a shower - that had barely helped in bringing him back to life - and went down to the Pokemon Center’s cafeteria for something to eat. If a shower wasn’t going to work, maybe a cup of Univano would... Oh. god. Why did he thought that no sugar was a good idea?!

It was still early when they started their journey towards the Celestial Tower. Even from kilometers away, it’s spectacular figure took over the landscape. It gave Touya hope that this day would get better… Idea that immediately went down the drain when he noticed the storm clouds in the horizont.

“I hope we can get there before the storm…” Said Touya.

“It's going to fast to be normal storm clouds. Maybe it could be Thundurus?”

“Isn’t Thundurus just a legend?” N got immediately defencive, already prepared to rebrute Touya’s statement. But nothing came. Instead of debating that Thundurus was real, he got lost in thought, as if really thinking in what Touya had said.

“Hey, who knows, maybe all those legends are real. After what happened in Hoenn some years ago, anything can be real.” Touya had tried to reassure N, but instead he had gave himself anxiety. What if _their_ legends were also true? Would they end like Hoenn? Destroyed by the power of the stories they had told their children?

“I’m sure they exist.” N smiled, sure of his statement. The complete opposite from Touya’s fears.. “There is proof of the war that happened after the Great Grey Dragon got separated in the legend, along with proof of the existence of the heroes. Surely White and Black dragons must exist.” Apparently, N loved to constantly remain Touya of school. At least he enjoyed history…

“Good point. I just hope that doesn’t mean something bad will happen…” N appears to stiff a little. “You did reminded me of something thought…” N stared at him, curious.”Nah, nothing important, just some old stuff I did as a child.”

“I want to hear.”

"Just... you know, the usual childish stuff."

"But I don't know. I want to hear."

Touya looked at N for a moment, but the other man didn't appear to want to let that go. Touya sighted. “Fine, is your fault if you get bored, tho.” N smiled. Touya was already regretting this. “So, when we were children, me and a bunch of other kids used to play that we were the legendary heroes… well, not me, only Cheren and Hilda… you do remember Cheren, right?”

"No."

"Really? The guy who was accompanying me when we first meet.”

“Oh, the jerk.”

Touya laughed too hard at that. “Exactly! Hilda was a girl that also lived in our town. She and Cheren were super competitive. Who was the fastest, who got the better score in an exam, that one legendary pie competition… That one was _disgusting_... Whatever, it was a little ridiculous. They both - _of course_ \- wanted to see who would become the champion first. Anyway, Hilda used to play that she was the Hero of Ideals, so of course Cheren had to be the Hero of Truth. Poor Bianca and I were left being the legendary dragons. I always ended up with Hilda, she man-handle me till I couldn’t move anymore.” Touya laughed, that was so long ago...

“You were the Black dragon...” N looked at him in a really strange way.

“Exactly. Those were fun times. Hilda moved to Kalos some years ago. I heard she recently became the champion.”

“Do you… miss her?” N frowned at him. He sounded… different. _’Jealous’_ , one part of him corrected. He wished he could mentally slap that part of himself. He thinks the sky wished to do the same, as it had started to drizzle.

“Well, yes. We were friends after all, we grew up together. Although, it was mostly because after she left, there was a hole in our little group. She was the adventurous one, the one with the crazy ideas. Without her we were stuck inside doing… boring stuff. She was the one that always convinced Bianca to fight for what she really wanted, and without her Cheren had lost his drive to become better, Bianca and I were barely a challenge... You know? She was going to be the one on this journey, actually helping the professor. I still feel I was the wrong choice.”

N looked confused for a moment, but rapidly his expression changed to one of anger. “No! I want you here! You're much better than that champion wannabe! Pokemon like you, why shouldn't you be here?!” Touya’s whole world stopped. Had the lack of sleep finally taken its toll on him? No, no. Surely it wasn’t like that. This was N, after all, is not like he knew what he was doing to Touya's heart.

Thunder cracks in the distance, announcing finally the start of the storm. In seconds, the light drizzle that had started just a moment ago had picked up speed.

“What the-?!” The strange mood was immediately dampened. Both had immediately started to look for a shelter that wasn’t a tree - Touya didn’t want to die yet, thank you very much.

Seeing as there was nothing that could protect them from the storm, they ran. Touya feared that the only place that could shelter them from this was the Celestial Tower itself, that appeared to still be too far away.

They kept running. The thunder roared and the storm kept being as unstoppable until- “There!” In the distance, near the small mountain around the valley, there was the entrance to a small cave.

Sadly, by the time they had reached it, they both had already been soaked from head to toes. Uug, stupid weather.

Seeing as the rain appeared to not be stopping any time soon, N sat down. Touya decided to do the same after taking off his jacket.

“I’ll give you this. That was not normal.”

“Are you saying that Thundurus is more than just a legend?” N’s eyes went wide, maybe a little bit of mischievousness in his eyes.

“Maybe, maybe not. But if he does, he owes me some laundry made.” N smiled. Surely amused at the idea of the thunder god cleaning Touya’s clothes.

“Uh, what’s that?” From the deepest part of the cave, Touya noticed a strange blue light. He looked confused at N. The other man looked back at him and then stood up, walking towards the strange lights as if it was a daily occurrence.

Touya thought for a second on what to do. He could stay here, safe and alive, or he could stop N from being murdered by something… damn it.

Touya stood up. “Wait!” As Touya got closer to N, the lights became brighter.

N stood in place, but when Touya was near enough, he turned around. “Look” He whispered, immediately turning again towards whatever had not killed them yet.

There, at the back of the cave were some Litwicks. They were dancing in circles, around each other. Their ethereal flames creating a marvelous expectacle: Purple, blue, green, yellow, orange. Even in the middle of a terrible storm, the little creatures prefered to dance.

Sadly, the show didn’t last long enough. Soon enough one of the Litwicks spoted them. Some cowarded towards the wall of the cave, but most of them had stayed in place, inspecting the new comers. A brave little candle decided to take a closer look, it’s purple flame looking more like mist than fire. The litwick made a strange sound.

“Oh, I’m sorry, we didn’t mean to.” Another sound came from the little candle. “We were just hiding from the storm.” The litwick made an unhappy sound, the idea of water being enough to scare it. “I was also curious if you could help us? the storm left our stuff soaked. Can we left them here for a moment?” The Litwick smiled, a little mischievous smile that sent red flags to Touya's brain. But before the candle could do… whatever it was planing, another Litwick with a blue flame stepped in.”

Blue flame appeared to scold the one with the misty flame. The other candle appeared to pout at this. “So… what’s happening?”

“Apparently, he likes to burn travelers clothes…”

“What?!” Blue appears to say yet another thing to Misty, who just floats back towards the rest of his friends, apparently a little sad he couldn't burn Touya’s poor clothes.

“Are you sure?” N asks as Blue tells him something else. “Thank you!” Then and there, N took off his jacket and shirt off.

"What are you doing?!" Touya shouted. His traitorous eyes not leaving N's body.

"Um? They said it was fine to leave it here? They were going to watch out the other Litwick in case he tried to do something."

"I meant: Why are you taking your shirt off?!"

"... Is also wet? I don't want to get sick." Touya made an incoherent sound. Right right, he should have expected this in the first place.

"You should also take that off."

"N-no. I'm fine."

N frowned. "You're going to get sick."

"Do-don't worry." N looked at him, doubting Touya’s judgement. "Really." Touya tried to find something to focus on that wasn't the doubtful look on N's face nor his shirtless torso.

"Eeh, be right back. I-I'm going for my jacket." Touya tried to take as long as possible to go for his jacket, shamefully that wasn't long enough. After checking that the storm was still going, he turn back towards the cave, but someone was there behind him.

"Oh, no, you're not burning my jacket." Touya frowned at the Misty Litwick. The little pokemon tried to say something.

"Eh, what?" Misty gave him the bitchiest look Touya had received from a pokemon.

The Litwick started to move around and point towards Touya and the back of the cave.

"Eh... you want me to... go there?" The Litwick shaked his head rapidly. "Eh... me and the other Litwicks?" No, that wasn't it. What else coul-ooh. "Me and N." The Litwick looked confused. "Me and the other human." That was it. The Litwick move it's head up and down. "What about us?" The Litwick frowned at Touya. Then it started to make weird face that reminded Touya of a kissy fa-oooh "That if I like N?" The Litwick started to float around as it's strange flame got bigger.

"Wh-what do you care?!" Toya's face went red but the Litwick looked at him again in that bitchy way. "No, go away." Before Touya could walk away, the Litwick used ember, too near his precious jacket. "What's wrong with you?! Ok, ok, I like him. Will you stop?!"

He started to walk towards the back of the cave, but the Litwick followed him. He really didn't want to be followed by this little pyromaniac... 

Wait a second; he was a pokemon trainer!

"Arc, help!" From the pokeball came out the Tirtouga, ready to fight. "Use Aqua Jet!" Before the Litwick could even move, Arc had already hit it. Now in th floor, the Litwick retaliated with a flame burst, but it barely did damage to the Tirtouga. "HA! take that! Arcs, Ancient Power!" The Tirtouga concentrated in his next attack, but the Litwick was faster and tried to attack again, this time with a hex, but it did nothing to stop the fiery storm of rocks that came.

"Got you!" Touya threw a pokeball at the defeated Litwick, the first one he had ever trew. One, Two, Tree. The pokeball stopped, indicated that Touya had actually caught his first pokemon - seeing as the other ones had followed him willingly.

"Wait... wait..." Arc looked at his trainer, waiting for at least a thanks. "Oh, god, I just caught the jerk!" Touya covered his face with his hands. Damn. At least he had now a fire type on his team?! Uug.

Feeling defeated - in spite of his victory - Touya walked back towards the end of the cave. Hey, dealing with a shirtless N was better than dealing with the fact that he had caught _that_ Litwick of all the ones in the cave.

“Um? Where’s the Litwick?” Oh god, why?!

“He… kinda… well…” N stared at him, confused. “I might have… catched him?”

N looked confused for a moment, that confusion soon changed into anger, but, before anything came out of his mouth, there was a cheer.

There, at the end of the cave, were the rest of the Litwicks. Dancing and singing and cheering as if one of their own hadn’t just disappeared.

“What?! You-you don’t mind?!” N asked the Litwicks. Blue said something. “But, but, he’s your friend! You might never seen him again!” Blue appeared to say something, something that sounded important and profound, but Touya didn’t know _what_. The Litwicks were looking at N, who appeared to have discovered something revolutionary, but Touya couldn’t even imagine what could it be.

“...Eh, what did I just miss?” N looked at him, weirdly.

“They said… they don’t want him back… He caused problems, not only with people but with other pokemon and...he was a jerk.”

“Oh, yeah, I can confirm, he _is_ a jerk.”

“But why would a pokemon be a… a jerk?”

“...For the same reason people are jerks?”

“But… but…” N got quiet after that, still a little lost. Touya decided to left him to his own thoughts and instead looked at the group of Litwicks.

“I could release him if you wanted?” Most of the Litwicks moved their body as a negation, some even shouted. Pyromaniac was - unsurprisingly - disliked by everyone… “I also should ask him if he wants to come with me, no?” The Litwicks looked almost scared at the proposal, the one with the blue flame even pushed Touya a little, as if saying that he should really really not release the little candle.

In the middle of his thoughts, someone came to interrupt him, thought. It was Arc, who he had forgotten to get back into his pokeball.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Arc.” The Tirtouga made a noise and pointed towards the entrance of the cave. “Eh, you want me to go there?”

“He says that it stopped to rain.” N answered, still looking a little… off. Arc shaked his head in agreement.

“Finally. I feel we have been stuck here for years.” He turned around and looked at the group of Litwicks. “Eh… thanks for everything?” The Litwicks waved at him and some even dared to _push_ him towards the exit. Touya started to think that maybe all Litwicks had huge personality flaws, not just the burning-stuff part.

“Are you ready?” He looked back at N that was thankfully putting back on his white jacket… well, more like fighting it.

“Let’s go.” He said when he finally found the hole for the head. “Have a nice day.” N said towards the Litwicks.

Touya got Arc back into his pokeball and followed N to the beautiful and stormless sky. At this point he hopes that he’ll never ever be inside a cave ever again.

Now that the prospect of a thunder falling on them had disappeared, Touya noticed how near the actually were to the tower.

“... Maybe you should see if the Litwick is ok?” N sounded a little stunted, as if he didn’t want to acknowledge that Touya had captured a pokemon.

So, he let out his new… friend.

The Litwick stretched his little arms and yawned.

“Eh, hi?” Touya said, a little preoccupied about how the Litwick felt about being captured just like that. The little candle stared at him with that patented bitchy face of his. “I’m really sorry about… catching you? I could release you if you want?” The Litwick made a noise. Touya looked at N.

“Eh… he says he was tired of living there. Too boring.” The Litwick added something else. “He says that you must be a trainer, so surely you go in a lot of adventures.” The Litwick said something else, adding a little epic pose. “Why would you want to do that?! That’s bad!” The Litwick frowned at N. The other man looked appalled. “D-don’t use that kind of words! You shouldn’t swear!” The little Litwick laughed at N’s outburst. 

Touya took the Litwick into his arms. “Stop already.” The little candle pouted. “I guess you’re ok with coming, so what if you met the others?” One by one, Touya let the others out of their pokeballs.

“So, that’s Adrien - stop frowning.” But even then, the Servine kept showing his disgust with his trainer choosing to keep a _fire type_ of all things. “And this is Amara.” The Excadrill, who appeared to be the only proper pokemon under his care, actually appeared to introduce herself. “Archimedes, who you already know.” But instead of saying anything, the Tirtouga had gone back to sleep. The Litwick, as the adult he surely was, did a raspberry, still not taking his lose that well.

That’s when someone pushed off Touya’s hat. Ariana had decided that she was a far better accessory a long time ago. “And finally, this is Ariana.” She jumped and made noises. “And you… do you have a name?” The Litwick shaked his head and did a strange noise. “Eh… Yi?” He shaked his head and repeated the sound. “Ier?” No “Mie?” Kinda. “Mir!” The Litwick cheered, but appeared to say something else. Touya looked at N, waiting for a translation.

“He says that he won’t fit with the others.”

“It was a coincidence! I swear! What's wrong with Mir? You already said that's your name!" The Litwick inflated his tiny cheeks - do candles have cheeks?! - and frowned at Touya. "Ok, ok, you jerk. Just Amir, ok?" Amir shaked his head in agreement. Now that that was done, the little candle went to have an apparently very interesting conversation with Ariana.

They walked in silence for a while until - “WHAT?!” N shouted at apparently nothing.

“Um? What’s wrong?”

“I-they-aah-noting!” Amir smirked and appeared to say something to N. “Stop lying! You jerk.” Before Amir could say something else to N, Touya decided that it was time to get Amir back to his pokeball.

“What was he even saying?” 

“Nothing!” 

Touya rolls his eyes. “Sure. Come on, we’re almost there.”

It had felt like an eternity, but they finally had reached the Celestial Tower. It’s doors wide open, as if expecting them. Touya barely knew about this place, he knew it was a cemetery for pokemon but… nothing else. 

There were more people than what Touya had expected, being still somewhat early and after a storm. 

Scattered around the tombs were people of all ages. There were so many groups of people and yet… they were so quiet.

N was looking at them too, specifically at an old lady sitting not that far from the entrance. Her head was low; her hand appearing to look for someone's elses. N kept looking at her, as in a trance. He looked… sad.

“Do you… want to stay here?” N almost jumped in surprise, as if forgetting he had come here with someone else. “We could go higher.” N looked once more towards the old lady, then he looked back at Touya and shaked his head in affirmation, walking towards the stairs without even waiting for the other man.

Touya followed him, but the second floor had as many people as the first one. N looked strangely at them, confused at the masses of people. So he kept going.

Third, fourth, fifth floor. In every single one there had been at least one person. Alone, or with a pokemon; with family or with friends. And every time they kept going higher, until there were no more floors.

There, at the top of everything, was a bell. Old and discoloured but still well kept. 

“There are so many people here…” N said, leaning on the railing, looking down at the people coming and going from the tower.

“Well, yeah. It’s saturday; I imagine the people that live around here come often.” Touya took from his backpack a dog eared book. “The traveling guide also says that a visit to Mistralton is never complete without paying respects here, so there must also be a lot of tourists.” Touya squirmed to the text, finding it incredible funny that there was more written about the tower than Mistralton itself. He should really check the guide more often.

“But people…” Touya frowned.

“... Are you still with that? I thought we had gone over it. People love pokemon. If not, why else would someone make this huge tower just to remember the ones that died?” Touya was tired, tired of Plasma’s bullshit and doubting people. He was not letting N believe the same as them.

N looked away. “Please, stop thinking every single trainer is going to do something bad to their pokemon.” 

“But... I have seen so many broken pokemon. Trainers did that to them.”

“I never said that everyone was good. There is awful people out there that don’t deserve pokemon. But that doesn’t mean that pokemon would be better off without _every_ single human.”

“... Is that... your truth?” N finally looked at him.

“I wouldn’t say is mine but yes, _it is_ the truth.” N’s eyes went wide. “Do you think that lady we saw down there was so sad because she didn’t love her partner pokemon?”

“...They were right.” N smiled.

“What?! Are you even listening to me?”

“Yes. But Touya, you’re the Hero.”

“What are you even talking about?”

“You are the Hero of Truth!”

“N-no?! I’m not?! Stop! We were talking!”

“But you’re! If there is a Hero of Ideals, there also has to be a Hero of Truth. You have to be that Hero!”

“Those are legends!” Touya tried to laugh, but it sounded wrong.”Who is the Hero of Ideals, anyway? Can we go back to the other topic? Do you still think that humans are not good for pokemon?”

“... I don’t know anymore. You have changed so much of my world, do you see why you’re the Hero?”

“Anyone could have done that-”

“No, it had to be you! I wanted a world in which humans would leave pokemon alone.” Wait… that sounded suspiciously like…”But that would mean a world without you.” N had taken Touya’s hands into his own, but Touya’s brain was too preoccupied with how much the other sounded like _them_. “My Ideal world has changed because of you.”

“..Ideal?” N shaked his head in affirmation and smiled. “...You think you’re the Hero of Ideals?” Touya laughed, but it sounded so much more like a whimper.

N frowned. “I don’t think so. I _am_ the Hero. I’ll make a world in which every pokemon can be happy.”

Touya’s eyes went wide. “Those are just legends.”

“No. We have found the Dark Stone. Soon we’ll change this world.”

“We?! Stop! You sound like those-” Oh… He was an idiot.

A memory came back to Touya. Of a man in strange clothes in Accumula. He had barely seen him, with how many people there were, but he clearly remembered his strange clothes and his unusual headpiece. But now that he thought back on him, he remembered.

He had green hair.

“Plasma… You’re with Plasma.” N looked to the side, almost bashfully. “Not only did you believed in them - you’re with them!” N stepped backwards, scared of Touya’s outburst.

“I’m an idiot! Of course, of course. You must be the son of one of those assholes!” Touya laughed, but it sounded so broken. He started to walk towards the stairs.

“No.” Touya turned around, slowly. He couldn’t see what face N was making, as he had covered it with his hat. “I’m not anyone's son.” He raised his face. He looked so heartbroken... “I’m the King of Team Plasma.”

N took Touya’s forgotten hat. He had ran so fast; he didn’t even noticed he had dropped it...

For the first time since they had meet, Touya had been the one that ran away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took me like a month to write.
> 
> Yes, Nilbert is the convination of N and Hilbert, but is actually a reference to certain pokemon comic I hope all of you have already read ;D
> 
> “Oh, Phanpies!” My proudest moment.
> 
> Also, look at me, sliping my awful Americano coffee pun 3 chapters later. I’m living the dream.


	7. Lonely days

“Electro ball!” Touya said. Ariana immediately obeyed, barely missing Skyla’s Swanna.

“Acrobatics!” Swanna swooped down and attacked Ariana, leaving the poor Joltik in the floor.

She looked at her trainer, tired. “Electro ball!” And she did so, but Swanna had yet again masterfully evaded the attack in the air.

Ariana was able to finally stand again, but by then Swanna was already flying towards her again, ready to peck away whatever was left of her energy. Ariana rolled away just in time, but in the process she was left with her little legs in the air. She panicked.

“Please, just once more!” Touya shouted, sounding defeated… sad. He had sounded so sad lately. 

Ariana closed her eyes, she wanted so bad to make him smile again. She had to win.

Swanna almost fell from the sky. A bright like had started to come from the little Joltik. Swanna tried to regain her balance to attack yet again, but before she could do that, an Electro Ball had come out of nowhere.

“Swanna!” Skyla shouted, picking up her defeated friend. “You did well, take a rest.” As she returned Swanna to her ball, Touya ran towards the newly evolved Ariana. Thanks to her longer legs, she was capable to stand without help.

“Oh, Ariana, that was awesome.” The Galvantula jumped into his arms, trying to give her trainer a hug, one that Touya returned immediately. Although… he still looked a little sad. “Tought… you can’t be my hat anymore, can you?” Oh… that’s true. She was too big now, wasn’t she? Adrien was right, Touya looked wrong without his hat. Was that why he was so sad?

“Congrats.” Said Skyla as she walked towards Touya. “The Jet Badge is now all yours.” She extended her hand and gave the little metallic feather to Touya.

“Thanks.”

“Maybe it was a bad idea to put a flying gym next to a cave full of electric pokemon, but hey, that makes it more rewarding.” She laughed. Touya gave her a small smile.

Touya returned Ariana into her pokeball, seeing as he couldn’t carry her anymore on his head. He waved at Skyla and left the gym.

He entered the pokemon center and left Ariana and Arc for a check. He bought some food and potions from the Pokemart and waited for the nurse to come back in a quiet corner of the Pokemon Center.

After the nurse had told him that his pokemon were fine, Touya left. 

Icirrus was his next destination, but first he had to go past Twist Mountain… alone.

It wasn’t that different from before, was it?... well, it was. When he had started, he had been able to carry Adrien in her shoulders, but now he was too big for that. So he just walked, in silence.

Route 7 looked so empty and big, now that he had no one to talk with. One part of him also missed the storm clouds; now that he was without a hat, he felt as if the heat from the sun was piercing his skull.

He fought some random pokemon trainers that challenged him along the way. He took a rest to eat with all his pokemon and then kept going.

It was late afternoon when he finally reached the entrance to Twist Mountain. He stopped for a moment to decide what to do next. It was still to early to just wait for the next day to go through the mountain, yet too late to actually get pass it.

He looked around, but no one was there. Only the distante chiming of the bell was there to accompany him.

...

He stepped onto the cave. It’s darkness a refreshing sight. 

He walked for a while in the dark, but the exit to this particular cave wasn’t that hard to find.

At the other side he found an impressive sight. He walked along the scaffolding, looking down at the hole created from years and years of mining.

He found the entrance to another cave. He took some wrong turns and found more trainers that wanted to battle but nothing else happened.

Soon enough he had lost count of how many times he had entered the caves around this hole in the ground. Every cave he entered was colder than the one before, and every exit was accompanied by a darker sky.

He should have waited, he tells himself. It had gotten ridiculously cold. He was shivering and he had stopped feeling his ears a while ago. He should have bought a warmer jacket back in Mistralton…

He was so tired...

He found a quiet corner in the cave, far from the cold wind that came from the exist. He let out all his pokemon.

“Hey.” Touya gave them a crooked smile. Adrien shivered and looked at his trainer. He was so pale, his breathing was slow and his teeth wouldn't stop chattering.

Amara scolded Touya, but he just looked away, ashamed.

Amara looked at Adrien, preoccupied, but the Servine was frowning, lost in thought. Well, if Adrien wouldn’t talk with her, she could at least stop Touya from freezing to death. She started to excavate a human sized hole, after all, there was nothing like sleeping inside the earth.

Touya laughed. A handful of dirt had hit his head. She apologized. “Don’t worry. But you know, I think it’s fine like that.” She looked at her uncompleted work and frowned. Humans didn’t appreciate a good hole.

Touya slipped towards the cavity that Amara had done and tried to get comfortable, taking out his sleeping bag. Ariana decided to sleep next to his head, she tried to get comfortable but there wasn’t enough space, stupid new body. She rotate once, twice, thrice… Ug!

Touya laughed again and moved a little, just enough so she could finally fit. She did a content noise. Adrien coiled near his torso and Amara decided to sleep back to back with Touya. He could feel Amir’s heat. The slow breathing of Arc a reminder that he should sleep too.

But sleep never came to claim him. He rolled around in his sleeping bag, but every single time he could feel the small rocks in the floor stabbing him.

Half way through the night he gave up. Instead, he concentrated in Adrien’s slow breathing; in Amara’s strange snore-like sounds; In Amir’s strange flame, now dimer in his sleep, rising towards the ceiling. Touya didn’t want to lose them.

Plasma wished for a world in which humans and pokemon would be separated. And N- no, their _King_ was going to awaken the Black Dragon for that reason.

Touya still remembers, a decade later, the destruction of Hoenn. The coverage had been minimum, yet he could not forget the little he saw of it. Thousands of life destroyed by the vicious power of the titanic pokemon; Hundreds had perished to the heat wave, thousands more drowned in the sea. Would something like that happen to them? or would it be even worse? The power to completely change the world… If the Dragons were truly capable of that… There was no hope.

He curled around himself, wishing for the N in his head to shut up, to stop reminding him of the imminent doom.

He had been an idiot… And apparently also had an awful taste in men. He couldn’t like a normal guy, could he? No, he had to fell for the tall and lanky weirdo that was even worse with people than Touya himself. The man who had to be King - no leader, no boss - The _King_ of Plasma. 

And the worst part was that, even knowing the terrible things that Plasma had and will do… He still wanted to follow after him. That stupid part of Touya - the one that insisted that he should have kissed him in the Ferris Wheel, the one with dirty thoughts at night. The one that insisted and insisted that N wanted the same as him - that part, that stupid stupid part, still wanted to be near him. 

_’Let’s show him the truth’_.

Touya laughed. Yes, N was correct, all right? He was a Hero. The Hero of Idiocy. He was a patetic little kid who could not even deal with the fact that the person he liked might destroy his world. Truly an example to follow.

* * *

The light of the sun barely reached the corner of the cave in which they had settled the night before - yet, that didn’t stop the 5 pokemon from making hell of Touya’s day.

“No! Amir, let Arc down!” The Litwick laughed and kept the poor Tirtouga up in the air. Surprisingly - or maybe not, knowing Arc - He didn't even woke up. “You're going to get a Surf in your face at this rate!”

Ariana was tired of seeing Touya flailing around, especially after the third time in which he had almost ended face first in the floor, so she decided to intervene.

Adrien laughed as Amir panicked, his flame starting to grow at a rate that left Touya preoccupied for their lives.

“Not right now, Amara.” Said Touya as he tried to take the sticky web out of Amir’s body. Amara poked him again, a little more restlessly. “Amy, just a moment, please? I really don’t want to asphyxiate to death…” But she kept insisting. “Ok, ok, what is it?”

Touya turned around and understood what was the problem. Amara was holding a little Cubchoo by its tail. The little chill pokemon was trying to fight Amara’s grab, hugging what looked like the bag of Amara’s favorite snacks. 

Touya blinked and looked at Amara, she only shrugged. He sighed. “What do you want?” The Cubchoo looked confused. It occurred to Touya that maybe not every pokemon understood the human language… Well, it was logical, no? but then… how could N communicate with pokemon that had never in their life seen a human?

He’s taken out of his thoughts by Amara, she was shaking the little snack thief. “Eh… I think that it’s hungry?” Touya swears Amara had just raised a brow - thing that she did _not_ have - as if saying _’It was pretty obvious’_.

Touya rolls his eyes and takes the Cubchoo into his arms. He gave the snack bag back to Amara and sited the Cubchoo next to the others.

Touya saw that Amir had somehow cleaned what was left of the sticky web and that Arc had finally woken up, so he served everyone their food. “For once, let’s eat without anyone setting anything on fire” He sent Amir a dirty look. “Nor fighting with each other.” he finished as he looked at Adrien, who appeared to be ready to murder the little Cubchoo that had already started to eat whatever was left in front of her.

Thankfully, nothing wild happened during breakfast. At one point, Ariana started to throw her food at Amir, but Touya stoped all that before an all out war started.

The Cubchoo finished before any of them. She stood up and walked away without saying anything. Amara tried to scold her, but Touya told her that he didn’t care.

After cleaning everything, he returned everyone but Amir to their pokeballs. It was a little chilly and the Litwick had shown himself capable of not setting him on fire, so it was the logical thing to do.

They walked for a while, and 2 caves later they had finally reached the base of the excavation. The place was bursting with miners. He tries to evade them for a while but after making a wrong turn and ending in a cave full of ice, he decided to ask someone how to get to Icirrus.

He was almost out of the cave when he saw someone. 

Touya closed his hand into a fist. The light blue tunic making him see red. He ran, leaving Amir floating confused behind him.

The Plasma grunt stopped and looked back, but there wasn’t enough time for him to get away from the trajectory of Touya’s punch.

Breathless, the grunt stumbles into the ground. “What are you planing?” Touya almost growls. The grunt smiles at him, the pain clear in his face.

“You must be the Truth guy. I have heard of you.” The grunt stood in wobbly legs. “You know? The sages have offered a hefty prize to the one that defeats you.” The grunt sent Touya a toothy smile, as he went for the pokeballs that were resting in his belt.

Touya punched the grunt straight in the face, making a burst of blood come out of his nose. The grunt hits the back of the cave with his back and covers his nose, panic raising on his face. 

Touya prepares himself for a third punch when-

“Touya?!” He turns his head around and sees the silhouette of a baffled Cheren. In the surprise, he turns around, as if trying to hide from Cheren’s gaze, but finds the grunt already scaping towards the deeps of the earth.

Touya tries to run after him, still feeling a pent up anger he never knew he had inside, but something pulls him from the neck of his jacket. “W-what’s wrong with you?! Did you just... _broke_ someone’s nose?!”

“He… he was a Plasma grunt-”

“And you _broke_ his nose!” Touya looked ashamed to the side, evading Cheren’s furious eyes. “What happened? You weren’t like this in Driftveil.”

“I-I...if we don’t- if we don’t stop them…”

“Touya, they are a bunch of useless tugs.”

“N-no! Listen! They’re planning something. T-they want the power of the legendary Dragons to make their wishes come true!”

Cheren looked baffled. ”Are you listening to yourself? The Dragons are just a leg-”

“Groudon and Kyogre were a legend and look how Hoenn ended!”

“...You-you need to rest. Come on, the Pokemon Center is no far from h-” Cheren tried to take Touya’s hand into his own, but Touya moved his before Cheren could even get near.

“You never listen to me!” He shouted, walking backwards, away from Cheren. “You and Bianca are always going on and on about unimportant stuff, have you ever in your life listened to me?! Something bad will happen and-”

“And what? The Dragon from a children story will come to life and do a magic trick?”

Touya felt an anger greater than the one before, one full of pain and betrayal.

He took Amir into his arms and had ran, the echo of Cheren’s voice following him until he reached the exit. He feels hot tears roll down his eyes. 

_’What an awful taste for friends you have’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me when writing this: I want the prose to be very stiff and unfeeling, to make it feel like Touya’s mental state.  
> Me when editing this: WHY IS IT LIKE THIS?!
> 
> "Humans didn't appreciate a good hole"  
> ooh, don't worry Amara, _we do_


	8. Ideals come

Somehow, Touya is capable enough to evade Cheren for the next three days.

He had completely skipped the stop at the Pokemon Center and kept going toward the marshlands. He fought against random trainers in the morning and camped for the nights, thanking Arceus that the swamp was a much better place for his back than the cave.

A day later, after shoving some Palpitoad away from the camp, Adrien had finally evolved. His figure now towered over Touya’s, long enough to coil around him multiple times. Adrien had finally become the ultimate hug machine.

And then, the next day, after some fights against some trainers lost in the marsh, Arc had also evolved into a Carracosta… even more lazy than before. Leaving Amir as the only one still in his basic form.

By the end of his stay, Touya had explorer as much as there was to see. He could keep going to Opelucid but he would have been still missing one badge. So, no matter what, he had to go back to Icirrus.

Somehow, he got to the gym safely. Trainer after trainer easily falling to the power of Amir’s flames, finally feeling free to destroy as much as he wants. Not even Brycen’s team could hold to the power of the little pyromaniac candle.

Touya couldn’t believe he had come this far. He and his pokemon had earned seven of the eight badges required to challenge the Elite Four, they were truly a team, a force to be reckoned by.

Proud, he walked away from the gym- “There you’re!” and immediately ran back inside.

Not wasting a second, Cheren graved him by the wrist and manhandled him back to the entrance, where Bianca was waiting.

“We need to talk.” Said Cheren. Touya only frowned.

“Talk? Doesn’t that imply that you’ll listen to m-”

“I’m listening, Touya, and everything I hear is ludicrous.”

“Look, I know it sounds crazy, but if you just listened to me.”

“Ok, I’ll listen but that will be after _you_ listen to yourself.”

Touya opened his mouth again, but no sound came out from it. Cheren was right, he sounded like a madman. It made no sense for him to know about Plasma’s plan without explaining how he had become friends ~~and fell in love~~ with their leader. He had to tell them the truth… the truth of how a man-child wished to call upon the Black Dragon from _legend_ and completely change the foundations of the world. Oh… Why had Cheren to be always right?!

“I-I…”

“D-do you hear that?” Bianca asked, looking around.

“No. What are y-” But before Cheren could even finish the question, it happened. A sound a kind a explosion came, the earth started to shake.

Bianca shouted something, but another explosion completely drowned her voice.

“Excuse me.” Touya turned around to see Brycen on the door, already running towards the origin of the explosions. He looked back towards his friends, confused, but-

“Cheren, wait!” Following behind Brycen was Cheren. Bianca looked at Touya, little scared “Should we go after him?”

Touya stayed quiet for a moment, seeing Brycen and Cheren’s figures disappear into the forest path up north “Come on.” He decided. She agreed, so both started to follow after them.

There, at the other side of the abandoned path, was an old tower. It appeared to be as tall as heaven itself, surrounded by trees that could be as old as the land they had rooted themselves into. The tower itself was in the middle of a lake of crystalline waters. It was a breathtaking view, a view that had most likely took away the breath of hundreds of thousands of people for millennia. 

A view that now found itself in shambless.

A colossal hole could now be found in the ancient walls of the tower; the old and dusty stone now littering the path and the lake.

Team Plasma had made a statement: they would not stop for anything, even by a monument praising the Dragon they wished to revive.

Brycen stood in place, shocked. He didn’t even move when numerous grunts surrounded them.

“We ask for you to leave the premises.” Said the Plasma grunt that appeared to be in charge. She stood tall, ready to fight all of them come the need.

Brycen closed his hand into a fist, trembling with fury. “What do you think you’re doing?” He asked, coldly.

“Team Plasma’s sole mission is to liberate pokemon from human cruelty, but you haven’t listened. We had tried everything but no one has list-”

“I asked: What are you doing.” Brycen voice was like pure ice. He stood his full height, his fury only building.

She frowned, furious. “This is exactly the problem! This is why Lord N has come to awaken the legendary Black Dragon today!”

Touya’s heart stopped.

All hell had been freed. Ice Beams and Dark Pulses were flying uncontrollable through the air, but the previous words kept resonating in Touya’s brain.

“W-where is Touya?” Bianca shouted to Cheren, but he was to concentrated in the battle against Plasma. “Cheren!” She insisted, tugging at his sleeve.

Cheren frowns. “What?”

“Touya is gone!” Bianca repeated, scared.

Cheren looked around, confused, but soon his expression changes. It was as if Touya had never been there.

* * *

Touya had stopped running by the 3rd set of stairs, his adrenalin running out a long time ago. What was he doing? He wanted to see N again, but… for what?

But not even his doubts can stop him, he has to keep going. Maybe… maybe he only wanted to see for himself if it was true. If N was truly… _Lord_ N, if he truly wished to create a new world.

After a while, he starts to notice the low amount of grunts he finds. But what really bothers him is how none of them appears hostile. Some try to attack him, but immediately change their minds after giving him a better look; Most just looked at him and whispered.

 _’You’re the Hero of Truth!’_ resonates the memory in his head. It makes him sick.

By the 5th floor he started to noticed the smiles. They were all smiling as he got near...

And by the 7th it clicked. They were laughing. At him? At N? It doesn’t matter, the sole notion of Touya being a _Hero_ was funny. Of course it was. He was _Touya_ after all.

He feels like laughing, but after so many floors is impossible.

8th, 9th, 10th floor. He starts to ask himself if the tower truly has an end. He decides to take a break. He could hear battle in the lower floors; the cries of pokemon and the grunts being loud enough to be heard even here.

Touya closes his eyes and breaths till his heart rate goes back to normal. He stays like that for a while until he feels… something. He looks down and finds a Cubchoo of all things trying to get inside his back.

“What do you think you’re doing?” but the Cubchoo looks uninterested in him and keeps looking. Touya frowned and takes the Cubchoo into his arms. She looks at Touya with huge adorable eyes. “Awwww-wait.” Touya takes a better look, in between her paws was a bag of Amara’s favorite snacks. “It’s you!” He shouts, but the Cubchoo frowns back, seeing her plan fall apart. “What are you doing here?” But no answer come from the Cubchoo-oh, fuck, of course it didn’t. Touya took the bag from here little paws. “This is _mine_ , ok? go back home.” He puts her down, but the Cubchoo doesn’t bother to go away, she just kept looking at him. Touya sighted and stood up. He didn’t have time to bother; he could hear Cheren just some floors away, calling his name.

He looked up and took a breath, ready to continue with his way, but before he could even try to walk, he felt some little claws itch into his leg. “Let me go! Go away already.” He shook his leg, trying to get the Cubchoo to leave, but she wouldn’t bulge. “Ok, see if I care!”

And so, he ended going 3 more flights of stairs with a Cubchoo attached to his leg.

By the 4th he was already exhausted, and from the look of this floor it appeared it wouldn’t be the last. Every floor was smaller than the one before, this one taking it to the extreme, having numerous flights of stairs one after another, divided by small stops.

“Oh god.” Touya said as he took a deep breath of air, but before he could continue, he felt it.

The earth trembled. The ancient walls of the tower creak, as if shouting in terror. Touya loses his balance, so fast that he almost fell face first to the floor. He feels something fall on his hair, is debris. His eyes go wide in terror, Was the roof going to fall?!

The Cubchoo cries in panic. She had not been able to keep her grip on Touya leg and was now being attacked by the debris.

Touya panicked. He took the Cubchoo in his arms and ran, adrenalin being the only thing stopping him from falling down. He jumped above the new and old holes that dotted around the stairs, somehow evading all the big pieces of the floor above that had started to fall.

He had almost reached the next floor when the side of the stair he was in started to fall. With pure panic in his veins, Touya jumps, barely avoiding the drop down and hitting the floor hip first. The Cubchoo cries, Touya doesn’t know if it’s a cry of terror of a cheer but damn, he feels the same way.

Touya groans and moves a little, finally noticing how the movement of the tower has stopped. HE opens his eyes and looks up. A gasp escapes him. Above him, there was no roof, only the infinite sky covered in black storm clouds. He had reached the end, N was…

He sat down and looked to the side. His world stopped. The Cubchoo cried in panic and jumped into his arms, cowering in fear, but he didn’t even noticed, he was far more preoccupied about remembering how to breath, after all.

In the middle of the room stood N. He was unmoving, not even noticing Touya’s presence. There, in front of him, was an orb. It was black, so so black that he couldn’t even see the light reflect on it. It was floating in the middle of the room, as if all the rules of the universe didn’t apply to it.

Nothing of that was bad, no no no, it wasn't that. That wasn't the part that made the Cubchoo hide and Touya's heart to stop. The orb was alive. It pulsed, as the heart of a beast. A vicious uncanny beast that was coming for Touya.

“N” He whispers, his voice trembling.

N form stiffens, as if waking up from a dream. He turns around slowly, maybe expecting Touya’s voice to have been his imagination. But no, he was not.

“T-Touya.” He says, as he takes a step back, scared.

...scared?

... _Scared of Touya?_

Touya takes a better look at N. He looked… wrong. He had shadows under his eyes and looked thinner. And there, dangling from his belt, was Touya’s lost hat.

“N.” Touya said as he stands up. He steps forward, but every time, N matches it with a backwards one.

“...I-I-I’m s-so-no...no... it’s you'r f-fa... y-you were…” He stepped backwards once again, taking Touya’s hat into his hand, crumbling it. He appeared to have a hard time breathing. “I-I wanted...with you… “ N crushed Touya’s hat even harder under his anxious hand. Touya thought he could see tears in his eyes. “b-but you…”

Ooh…

N closed his eyes and took a deep breath; it sounded more like a sob. He separated Touya’s hat from its place in his belt. “...Humans are bad. They play w-with y-yo…with pokemon and… T-they don’t deserve pokemon... they don't deserve this world.” N wasn't able to look at Touya, his tears wouldn’t stop.

He had raisen Touya’s hat in the air, as a treat. No, no, it couldn’t be…! “I’ll make a world in which pokemon can be happy, where… where…” With fury and pain, N finally threw Touya’s hat to the floor… but it never felt. He kept a hold of it, a hold so viceral that made Touya hurt. “A world… in which you can’t hurt…” He tried again, and again and agian, but his grip never wavered. He couldn't let go of Touya's hat.

What had he done?! This was his fault, this was his fault, this was his fault. He had broken N’s heart-

“No, no, no N! Please no! I-I didn’t mean to! N! N! I’m sorry-!” Touya ran.

Touya ran and ran and ran, but he felt as if he would never reach N.

He got near, he got so so near...

The sky roared in fury, the thunderous sound lasting an eternity. The sky opened up, but Touya felt nothing, not even when a lightning collided with the tower in a spark of fury. Not even when the tower shook once more and his legs gave up.

Thunder had come with a sole mission. The Black Orb gave it’s last pulse and stopped... just for it’s life force to be renowned with a horrible sound, a cry of true hate.

Hundreds streaks of blue lightning fell from the sky, making the tower restart it’s violent shakes. The ancient walls starting to fall under the hellish force; the floor millenia old finally giving up, sending Touya and N falling into the previous floor.

But Touya felt nothing, thought of nothing. Because _it_ was looking at him.

Touya felt tiny. A tiny speck of dust. A pathetic pathetic speck of useless dust. How else could he feel as the dragon of legend stared at him with it's 2 red eyes, like the color of the blood of those that had fell before Touya.

The monster roared in fury and the storm answered back. It’s monstruos figure turning an electrifying blue.

It was here. The Deep Black Dragon of Ideals had come to answer to N's resolve.

A resolve created by Touya's failings.

Touya felt to his knees; a stranded sound ripping out of his throat. What had he done?

Hours later, Cheren had finally found Touya. His clothes were soaked and his hair stood up, as if static still ran through it. He had curled on himself, holding a trembling Cubchoo in his hands. They were still sobbing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t know if I conveyed properly how terrifying a god-like 3 meter black dragon with red eyes and the power to command lightning truly is. But hey, I tried.
> 
> Also, for some reason I enjoy writing Cheren more than anyone else, WTF?!


	9. They tell of a champion

Touya woke up with a shout, tears in his eyes. It was that dream again.

He took a breath and another and another, but his heart wouldn’t calm down.

Adrien woke up. He was sluggish and still half asleep, but somehow he was still able to coil around Touya.

“Thank you” Touya whispered, petting Adrien’s head.

Touya closed his eyes for a moment, tired, but immediately opened them again. There, still behind his eyelids, were those red eyes.

Touya took another deep breath, hoping it would take away the storm clouds from his dream. It didn’t work.

They stayed there, in his mind. Accompanied by the nightmarish form of the Black Dragon and the ruins of the Unova he had once known.

Adrien coiled even more around him, a reminder that he was here, that he was here and good and _alive_.

Touya thanked him once more and hugged him back. It was not fair.

* * *

“You look horrible, have you been sleeping?” Cheren frowned. Touya didn’t even bothered to raise his eyes from his cereal.

“Well…” He took another spoonful. “Not really.” Cheren looked to the other side, upset.

“Anyway, what’s going to happen?” Touya asked.

“Uh?”

“The search for the other Orb thing Plasma mentioned.”

“Ah. Well, in all honesty… is not going well from what the Professor told me.” Cheren started to clean his glasses, a anxious tick he had always had. “After the failure at Relic Castle, the authorities have been analyzing every single rock they could find in the Nacrene Museum.” Cheren frowned yet again, feeling powerless.

“Stop looking so down, you two!” Said Bianca, sitting next to Touya with a stack of pancakes.

Cheren raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, we should stop preoccupation about the imminent doom that might destroy the world as we know it.”

“I told you.” Touya said under his breath, but no one heard.

“I know, but there is nothing we can do. We should stop preoccupying, surely the adults will find a way.” Cheren frowned yet again, but before he could say anything, Touya kicked him. “Oh! I know. You two are only missing one badge, no? You should go and challenge the city’s gym leader!”

“I thought he was in Nacrene with the other leaders?” Said Cheren.

“Yes, but Iris-I mean, his granddaughter took over the gym for him. Come on, it will be much more fun than just staying here.”

Cheren kept trying to convince her that they shouldn’t be fooling around in times like this, but by the end of the day it was pretty obvious how badly he had failed, as now they both owned the Legend Badge.

“That was awesome Cheren! That last battle was amazing!” Bianca jumped around, still excited after the battle between Iris’ and Cheren’s Haxorus. Cheren looked proud of himself. Touya just looked to the side, more interested in giving Audrey, the Cubchoo, some snacks.

“Hey, are you not evolving your Cubchoo?” Cheren asked, maybe finally remembering Touya was still there.

“Eh, nah, she prefers being a Cubchoo.”

“She… prefers? You’re it’s trainer.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I can do whatever I want. Right Audrey?” She looked at Cheren and then at Touya. “See?” But Cheren didn’t answer, he just kept looking at Touya, baffled… maybe even scared.

A spark of realization appeared on Cheren’s face. Touya’s body went completely still. He had just sounded like N.

With eyes locked on Touya, Cheren took a breath and opened his mouth, but- “Hey! I heard about a restaurant with super tasty Kalosian food, we could go there.”

“You know, that sounds great. Let’s go.” Touya rapidly answered back.

“Oh! It’s this way, you’re going to love it!” But Cheren stood in place, looking at Touya with a disappointed expression. Touya couldn’t even hold his look for a second.

* * *

“Froakie legs?!” Touya almost shouted. The couple next to their table shushed him.

“What? Are you now against eating pokemon?” Cheren looked at Touya from behind his menu, the hostility in his voice almost palpable.

Touya tried to hide behind his own menu. “No, but… no thanks.”

Bianca looked at them, confused. “What’s with you two?”

Cheren opened his mouth, ready to reply -

“Nothing!” Touya almost shouted, getting yet again another shush from the couple next to them.

Bianca raised an eyebrow. “Ok?... Anyway, they told me the Quiche here was amazing.” She kept talking for a while about the menu. Touya didn’t know if she had truly forgotten so soon about the atmosphere or had just prefered to ignore it, truly wishing for all 3 of them to have a tranquil afternoon.

The night had been full of meaningless chatter- Bianca’s plans from now on, about the places they had gone and the pokemon they had caught - but Cheren never stopped glaring at him. It was suspicion, hostility… disappointment. Touya couldn’t even enjoy his food, so when Bianca asked what he thought of the ciche, he had to lie.

The walk back to the Pokemon Center wasn’t any better. A charged silence taking over the three of them, foreshadowing something to come.

Touya wasn’t able to sleep that night either. This time it wasn’t just the nightmares that kept him awake.

* * *

The next morning, Touya was expecting to be ambushed by Cheren before he could even get to the Pokemon Center’s cafeteria, but he was halfway through his omelette and nothing had happened yet, maybe he could finally have a nice day...

“Touya!” He heard. He turned around, with a half eaten piece of omelette still in his mouth. Bianca was running towards him. “Did you heard?!” She shouted, gaining the glares of all the nearby people.

“Bianca, don’t shout.”

“B-but they found it!” This was meat with a chorus of groaning from the people that just wished to have a quiet morning.

“Bianca, seriously, calm down. Who find what, anyway?”

She took a breath and finally, in a lower tone, she said. “T-the White Orb!”

“Really?!” This time Touya was the one to shout, finally making numerous people leave.

“Professor Juniper should be coming here soon!”

“Wh-why?” Touya’s heart stopped, N’s voice resonating in his head _’You are the Hero of Truth!’_ No, shut up!

“Something about giving it to Cheren? So he could take it to Alder.” Ah, yeah, yeah. Of course.

“Wait, why not give it directly to Alder?”

“Eh… I think… he doesn’t have a Xtransceiver…”

“...What?”

“So no one can contact him…”

Touya passed his hand through his hair. “Our Hero…”

“Hey” Bianca smiled, but it was more anxious than calming. “The original heroes didn’t have Xtranseivers, no?”

Touya forced a laugh out and took another bite of his omelette, it tasted like ash. Alder was going to summon the White Dragon to fight against N… and then what? What would happen to N? Incarcerated for the rest of his life, to never walk freely again. Or were Plama’s claims to big for just incarceration? … Would he be even able to see him again?... alive, even?

“Are you not coming?”

“Eh? Where?”

“We are accompanying Cheren to the League, of course!” Touya’s heart stopped.

He didn’t even bothered to finish his omelette.

* * *

It was quiet.

Touya could feel Cheren’s stare. They still hadn’t talk about it, the right moment never presenting itself. Touya tried to think in something else, but his mind always came back to it. What did Cheren really tough?

He looked sideways, and sure enough, Cheren was looking back. This wouldn’t end well, would it?

“There she’s!” Bianca shouted. Soon enough he could also see it, a flying type pokemon getting nearer and nearer.

“It might not be the professor.” Replied Cheren, crossing his arms and frowning.

“B-but she said she would come at this hour!”

“There has been numerous strange storms lately…” Bianca’s face dropped, but Cheren’s eyes kept looking at Touya. Ha… strange storms, eh?

Soon, the shadow got bigger, the silhouette of a person being finally fully visible. All right, that was Prof. Juniper’s hairdo, no way around that. “Told you, It was the professor!” Bianca cheered.

It took a while before the professor could land, but soon enough she was in the ground. “Cheren! Bianca! Touya! It’s been so long!” She hugged Bianca who cheerfully returned the action, but the boys refused one, gaining a pout from her part. “I would have loved to chat about your adventures with a cup of coffee but… well, we have more important matters to attend.” She had a somber expression, something so unlike her.

Cheren looked at her, serious. The professor took the bag that she was carrying and took out something from it. It was small felted bag. She offered it to Cheren, who immediately took it. “... Can I open it?”

“Sure.” And so he did. Inside the bag was a sphere of such a white color that for a moment appeared to no leave a shadow. It was just like the one Touya had seen in the tower. His breath stopped and his heart accelerated. Was it fear? Or…

Cheren put it back into its bag before opening his own backpack. “I’ll not fail you professor.”

“I know you won’t. Take care.” She smiled. Cheren replied with a nod and walked away.

“W-wait! Cheren! Let us go with you!” Bianca ran after him the moment she noticed he had left, but Touya didn’t move.

“Aren’t you going too?” Asked Prof. Juniper, with a small smile in her face.

“I…” He looked to the side, conflicted. He wanted to save N, there was no way around it but... how? He was just a pathetic kid with nothing but a stupid stupid crush on his side...

“Touya, look, I know things have been hard. We don’t know what will happen after this so… go with them. If something does goes wrong… wouldn’t you want to at least have a final memory with them?”

A last memory… with him. Maybe even more, a last talk. He had fucked up, haven’t he? But he had still a last chance. N was going to be in the League, he still had a final chance...

The professor stared into the distance, a little confused. “He could have at least said goodbye.”

* * *

It was quiet, why had it been so quiet lately?

Bianca had tried to start a conversation but the heavy atmosphere was even too much for her.

Was this a contemplative silence, or was it only the prelude for the storm?

Soon enough they were able to see the gate that lead to Victory Road.

Cheren pushed the doors, leading them to… nowhere. “I-I was expecting more from the Badge Gates?” Said Bianca, looking around the desolate place.

Someone laughed. “Oh, you haven't seen anything yet, my lady.” It was an older man in a trench coat “But before anything, I must ask. Are you qualified? Only those that hold the 8 Unovan Badges may pass.”

Bianca’s face fell, she had not bothered at all with the Gyms, more interested in capturing as many rare pokemon as possible. “So… I imagine this is goodbye.”

“No, not yet.” Touya said, serious. She looked confused for a moment, but smiled nonetheless.

“You’re right.” She took both of their hands. “You two go and show those Plasma to stop being jerks.” Cheren gave Touya a side look. Bianca hugged them both by the shoulders, barely being able to reach them. “Take care, ok?” Tears started to gather in her eyes. “A-after this we have to go somewhere! How about Undella?”

“O-of course.” Touya lied.

“East Unova has so many pokemon we haven’t seen yet.” Cheren said, more emotional that what Touya expected from him.

They hugged for a while, maybe the last hug they would ever share… Or maybe… maybe one day…

They said their goodbyes after a while. A little more put in place and with their badge cases in hand, they finally walked towards the man that had asked to see their badges.

The gate opened with a creak, showing a small river surrounded by grass and fire “Good luck. The Climb through Victory Road will be a challenge.” Said the gatekeeper with a nod. Touya returned it and followed after Cheren.

They walked until they found another door, this one leading to a beautiful garden.

“Is a shame that Bianca couldn’t see this…” Said Touya, but Cheren didn’t respond.

The third gate hold the statue of a giant bug. “Touya…”

“...Yes?”

“How did you knew about Plasma’s plan?” Touya didn’t respond.

The fourth gate was a bridge, one covered by strange electric artifacts. “... You are with them, aren’t you?”

“W-what?! No!.”

“Don’t lie to me!” Cheren almost shouted, he was gritting his teeth. Behind the fifth gate was a slithering path, surrounded by walls full of precious gemstones. “I saw how those grunts were letting you pass while Brycen and I had to fight our way to the top.”

“N-no! I don’t know why they were letting me pass, but-!”

“Oh, you don’t?!” From the next door came a powerful wind. “Then what about that time in the cafe at Nacrene? The Ferris Wheel? The way to the Celestial Tower?!”

“Y-you have been stalking me?!” Touya didn’t even noticed that they were walking over a bottomless pit.

“Hasn't it occurred to you that we have been going the same way? How could I _not_ see you?!” The 7th door lead to a world of cold, of unfeelingness. “Have you ever thought about it?! That _You_ are the one that didn’t listened to me when I called you in all those places?! It took me too long to make the connection, but doesn’t your _friend_ looks suspiciously like certain spokesperson from Plasma? Like certain terrorist who wants to destroy our world?”

“He’s not a terrorist!” The last door opened with a bang, leading them to some old ruins, flanked by 2 dragons. “H-he’s just… lost”

“Lost?! He wants to end us all! … or was that also a lie?” Cheren’s Liepard appeared.

“Ch-cheren…” Touya stepped backwards.

“I didn’t want to do this…” Liepard jumped, but before his claws could pierce Touya’s skin, he let out Ariana. The Galvantula cried in pain but was quick enough to respond with a Sticky Web.

“S-signal Beam!” Touya ordered, but before it could hit, Cheren had already called out his Emboar; it burned the web all around the ruins.

“Flare Blitz!” Ariana squeaked in panic, but Touya was faster than Emboar. Arc received the hit from Emboar but, with his incredible defence, it didn’t even made a scratch.

“Brick Break!”

“Aqua Jet!” In seconds Arc was face to face with Emboar. The pig took the hit full on, letting a puff of smoke come out of his nose. It was then time for Arc to receive the full force of Emboar’s attack. The Carracosta made a pained noise and walked backwards.

Touya called Arc back and let Amara out, she wasn’t happy.

“Brick Break!”

“Earthquake!” Everything started to shake. The old ruins that signaled the start of Victory Road started to crumble. Soon enough Emboar landed on the floor, defeated. Cheren almost roared in fury.

Next in turn came Simisage. But before he could do anything, Touya had already let Ariana out again.

“Payback!” The punch came even before Ariana could land. She was furious. A Signal Beam came out of nowhere, surprising everyone. She stood, and prepared another attack. “Wait!” Touya whispered. “Next time, prepare a Thunder, ok?” She nodded.

Cheren returned Simisage to his pokeball, but Touya was faster. “Rock Slide!” Cheren shouted, but Audrey didn’t even care. Haxorus had fallen to the floor, frozen. “T-that’s impossible! A Cubchoo can’t do that!” Cheren was furious.

Audrey pouted. “H-hey-”

“No! No Cubchoo should be able of that.” The Earth shake yet again as Cheren’s Gigalith came out to battle. “Stone Edge!”

“Well, is not like I know why she can do that! Grass Knot!” Gigalith almost fell with Audrey’s attack, but it resisted. It stood tall, a furious shower of rock coming from under Audrey as it pounded it’s feet on the ground. Audrey flew through the air, falling face first. She tried to stand, but Touya took her in his arms before she could hurt herself more. “Hey, you did great, take a break.” She frowned, but went back into her pokeball without protesting.

Touya let out Adrien. The Serperior stood proudly, being as intimidating as he could. “Giga Drain!” Touya called, but Cheren had already called Gigalith back. Touya smiled.

Unfezant rose to the skies, it’s wings wide open, diving towards Adrien.

“Thunder!” And Unfezant fell. The sound of Ariana’s laughter as she finally took out an opponent.

“You were never like this!” Shouted Cheren as he let his Gigalith out. “I won in Striaton, Route 3, 4. You didn’t even bothered to catch more than 2 pokemon!” Gigalith’s last energy was drained by another Signal Beam from Ariana. “So why now?! You join Plasma. You abandon us and _now_ you actually bother in being a trainer?!”

“What?!” Simisage came out again, coming head on with Payback. “I _didn’t_ join Plasma, I would _never_ do that!” Touya returned Ariana to her ball and finally let Amir into the fray. “Not only you accuse me of being a traitor but also imply that I can’t become better?!” Simisage couldn’t run away fast enough from the hellish fire from the Chandelure’s fire.

Liepard jumped to the battle, Cheren’s last pokemon. “Then why?!” Touya let Adrien out. “Why did you go out with a terrorist!”

“Don’t call him that!” Liepard used Night Slash.

“He hates humans! He… he hates you! How could he left you crying in that tower?!” Adrien resisted, and with a war cry, used Giga Drain.

With it’s last strength, Liepard stood again, ready for another Night Slash.

“Y-yes, he does. Because I’m an idiot!” Touya’s tears were accompanied by a terrible leafstorm. “We could be here right now, together, but instead he's broken and sad and it’s all my fault.” Liepard was thrown by the wind, too tired to hold on to the earth. “I’m going to fix that! I’m going to find him a-and listen to him, about his feelings and about all those LIES that someone told him!” Liepard crashed into Cheren, who flew away, hitting his back against one of the dragón statues. His backpack fell.

“I’ll-I’ll…” _’Show him the Truth!’_

There, in the floor…

“I… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry. But I have to see him.” He took the Orb and returned Adrien into his Pokeball.

He hoped Cheren’s cry for his name wouldn’t be the last sound he would ever hear from his best friend.

* * *

Victory Road had been a hell of a climb. Up down and all the way around. Touya was pretty sure he had dirt in the dirt.

But everything - Cheren, Bianca, Victory Road - Had been worth it when he was able to stand in front of the Pokemon League. It was thought to have been long ago part of the first city in Unova; some even saying that maybe it was once the Castle of the first King.

Touya stood tall… but then remembered that Audrey was beaten up and that his feet didn’t want to go on, so he took a detour to the Pokemon Center.

He had never been in a Center like this. There was only one nurse and not even one clerk at the PokeMart. Completing the Gym challenge to get to here had been truly - well - a challenge, but to this point?... Well it was most likely that everyone had ran away after hearing about Plasma’s plan.

He left his team for a check up, picked up some food at the deserted cafeteria and then took a nap.

Thankfully, the sun hadn’t gone down yet when Touya exited the Pokemon Center. Good, he needed to reach Alder before Cheren came running to stop him.

He walked towards the entrance of the League “Are you the one that has the Orb?” A woman asked. She stood next to the entrance to the building, her tall form the only thing stopping anyone from entering.

“I-eh-Yes!” She raised an eyebrow. Touya only took the bag holding the White Orb from his pocket. She looked at him, still a little doubtful of this boy - of all people - being chosen to bring such an important artifact here.

She sighted, but let him pass. “I know you must be eager to challenge the Elite 4, but sadly, we don’t have time. Let me show you the way.” She walked around the main structure of the building. Touya could hear numerous switches being turned on before a beam of light appeared from under the statue inside the building.

“Stand before the statue, it will lead you to the Champion’s chamber.” Touya was a little confused, but nodded nonetheless.

He walked towards the statue; it was… strange It’s form held no meaning, nor did the plate had any life changing phrases. Touya waited for the elevator to move and boy, it did not disappoint.

Even from the top, He was able to see an infinite sea of stairs. They raised from the old ruins trapped by the earth towards the sky. Touya felt tiny, this was the Champion’s Chamber?

The elevator finally reached the bottom, leaving Touya along in the quiet. He gulped down and took a breath. Ok, if he started going up now, he would most likely reach Alder… in a year. Uggg.

He walked and walked and walked. Every step leading to a more impressive vista. Touya should have been impressed by the building in front of him; a building that could have been once a castle or a shrine. It was massive… but that wasn’t what really caught his attention.

Behind him, were the acend had started, there was a city. Touya could see streets and houses, now all destroyed and covered by debris. What had happened? What destroyed the city? He had hear in history class that the first people that lived in Unova were up in the north, near the mountains, where now the Pokemon League resided. This was it, this was the Castelia city of the past. People had lived here; they surely had families and pokemon and now… now it was in shambles. Was this what was left by the Original War?

Touya closed his fist and ran the rest of the way. He would find Adler, the champion, there, no? But he would also find N. How fitting, for the King of Team Plasma to choose the Champion Chamber, the place that was once a shrine to the Original Grey Dragón; or was it the Castle of the First King?

Maybe it was both.

Somehow, Touya was able to reach the end of the stairs. The old city being covered by the League building halfway through the climb. He was truly at the top of Unova. He could see bellow him Victory Road and the path of the Badge Gates. Was Cheren still there?

He gulped down half of his water bottle, took a deep breath... and stopped.

Did he had a plan at all? Not really, he just wanted to talk to N once more. He wanted to apologies… to tell him he truly wanted a world with N.

_’Woah, That’s gay.’_

...What the hell? Was his inner voice insulting him?! He shook his head in fury and kept walking. Finally entering the temple. The pass of time had done more damage to it that what Touya imagined, but it still appeared to be in pretty good conditions. The backdrop of the mountain against its missing walls still breathtaking centuries later.

There, at the end of the way, was Alder. Touya had meet him numerous time in his travels, and every time he had appeared as a pretty chill guy, there was no reason to fear.  
  
Touya took a deep breath, he could do it… right?

Alder stood tall. “Did they found the Orb?” He asked, a spark of hope appearing in his eyes.

“...Yes” Alder smiled brightly. Touya’s heart felt heavy. “But I didn’t come for that.”

Alder’s expression morphed into a confused one. “What?”

Touya looked to the side. “I know this sounds crazy and I’m not making sense but please, could you… let N go?”

Alder looked even more confused than before. “Are you feeling well, my boy?”

Touya took a deep breath, passed his hand through his hair and asked himself, for the 15th time this week, why was this his life. “Listen I… when I started my journey I meet this man. At first he was a little weird but with time I noticed that he was actually just extremely shy and that he loved every single pokemon and-”

“Boy, I understand how beautiful is to be in love and how hard it can be to fix problems of the heart, but right now is not the moment.”

“I-is not that! He-” But Touya couldn’t finish. The earth under their feet started to shake violently, both almost losing their footing. “W-wha-?!”

Debris started to fall from the roof, some old columns falling from their place. Touya couldn’t breath, he couldn’t, he couldn’t it was just like the tower...

But it stopped, it stopped, it had stooped. Touya took a deep breath and looked up. Alder wasn’t looking at him. “I-it’s something wrong?” Alder didn’t respond, he just walked towards the edge of the temple. Touya follows him with wobbly legs.

Touya looked around, the mountain didn’t look right… maybe a landslide? He looked back at Alder and noticed how wide his eyes were, so Touya followed his sight.

An audible gasp came out of his mouth. “Wh-wha?... H-has that always been there?” Touya looked back at Alder, the champion slowly shaking his head.

There, rising from the base of the mountain, was a castle. It’s tallest spiral almost tall enough to reach the temple. How? How had nobody noticed _that_?!

A noise startled Touya, who almost jumped to his doom. Numerous strange ladders had somehow appeared, going from the temple and down down into the castle. A thunder roared in the distance, numerous people walking up the stairs along with it.

The sky had suddenly gotten dark, storm clouds gathering around a figure in the sky. Touya panicked, stepping backwards until he tripped with the base of the broken columns.

He took a breath and another and another. His heart wasn’t able to calm down. The Black Dragon was here, and it had come for him.

Alder looked at him, preoccupied. The champion said something but Touya couldn’t listen. There was static in the air…

Alder had turned around yet again and shouted into the air, pokeball in hand. Rain had started falling into his hair.

Something was wrong, Touya noticed. His hair had started to stand up. No no no no “A-ALDER!” He cried out, but it was too late.

The sky roared; hundreds of blue streaks of lightning falling from the sky. Touya fell yet another terrible quake as one hit too near the League. Too near to Alder.

Touya tried to stand up, but yet another attack happened, incapacitating him from regaining his balance.

But now that everything had stopped, Touya could see Alder’s body sprawled on the floor.

“Alder!” He heard a shout coming from the entrance. It was Cheren.

Touya’s heart stopped, but Cheren was to occupied running towards the fallen figure of Alder as to notice him.

In between the panic, a legion of Plasma grunts had appeared from the stairs, but Cheren had already let his Emboar out, easily defeating 10 of Plasma's pokemon with a fiery roar.

Cheren dragged Alder’s body as far as he could from the battle, he appeared to still be breathing. Touya tried to stand up and help, but his legs wouldn’t move. He was scared, but of what? Of the storm outside? Of Cheren’s rage? It might have been both, because now he couldn’t even breath. Cheren shouted orders to his whole team as the sky roarer once more.

Touya saw as Cheren, in between the battle, took his Xtransceiver. He was frowning.

“People of Unova!” Touya could hear a familiar voice, it came from Cheren’s Xtransceiver. It was cold, so different from the shy man that had invited him to the ferris wheel. “No, the whole world! You have abused of pokemon enough! And I won’t allow it.” It sounded scripted, practiced. “You were given the opportunity to liberate your pokemon, but you didn’t listen.” For a moment, N’s voice fell. “Today at midnight, if by then one pokemon is still trapped…” Nothing comes, but Touya can imagine.

Touya heard numerous people running up; the cries of a Swanna making it painfully obvious who it is. A Dragon Pulse sends flying some grunts to their doom. The gym leaders are concentrated in one thing only and that’s surely not Touya, still hiding behind a pillar. Between all 12 of them, the rest of Plasma is easily defeated.

With everything in calm, they’re finally able to talk between each other. They ask questions, they shout, someon even ask for Touya’s head. But the only thing he can do is hide and hold tears.

After what feels like an eternity, they leave. The 3 brother’s from striaton taking Alder immediately to the nearest doctor; the rest going down and down, towards the strange castel.

With wobbly legs, Touya gets out from his hiding spot and looks down. Cheren and the Leaders had disappeared, hoping to find Touya and the White Orb inside the castle.

Touya looks up at the sky; is getting dark already. A turbulent and unnatural storm cloud is covering the league, but Touya can’t find the Black Dragon in the sky. He takes a breath and decides that the only place N could be is the castle, where Cheren and the leaders were.

Touya had chosen a different staircase from the others, hoping he wouldn’t be discovered. Numerous times he reminded himself to _not_ look down, but apparently his eyes had another idea. The sound of battle reached his ears little by little. As he was finally able to reach the entrance, he saw some of the gym leaders fight against Plasma's Sages. He couldn’t see Cheren in between the flying beans and explosions, but it wasn’t like he would have had the mind to look to the side and find his traitorous best friend. But the sages did.

One of the old men looked to the side. He looked surprised for a moment, but smiled. The sage gestured to the side, saying something that Touya couldn’t hear. The sage looked back to the fight, leaving Touya confused. He looked to where the Sage had pointed just a moment ago and there it was, almost hidden by the destruction, a way towards some stairs.

Touya ran towards them, not even wanting to imagine what would happen if a Gym Leader saw him. He ran upstairs, even with the protest of his poor legs. Just today, he had went up Victory Road, The Pokemon League and now this. He was going to be so sore tomorrow… That’s if tomorrow ever came.

When Touya reached the second floor, he finally had the mind to actually look at this place. It was beautiful. The sound of the fountains was almost loud enough to drown the shouts downstairs, finally helping Touya relax a little.

There were multiple doors, but every single one that Touya opened, was either devoid of life or contained only some tired grunts.

He went up another floor, but yet again he only found emptiness and strange machines.

By the time he reached the third set of rooms, he had almost lost his hope of finding something. But that wouldn’t last long.

Why was this here? The colors were too loud, the light was too bright. Every other room was clean and bare, but this one? This one was a child’s paradise. A child lived _here_? With Plasma of all people? Had they took a child just to teach him their wrong view of the world? It made Touya's blood run cold.

It didn’t look dusty… some toys did, but the place overall appeared well used. The ramp had numerous claw marks and the basketball’s surface was almost irreconocible, thanks to time and use. Was the child still around here?

He explores the room a little. The train set appeared to be specially well loved. Not the train itself, but the rails appeared to be put together more times than the manufacturer would have expected. Right now it looked like it was the train system of a whole city made of blocks. The little owner was already an engineer.

“AAH!” Touya shouted. He had been looking into a box full of old toys, when he had felt a terrible pain in his ankle. He looked down and found…

“Nil-bert?” The little Zorua was biting his ankle _hard_ , but it didn’t hurt as much as the realization. N’s Zorua was in the room of a child; a system loving child that had been raised by the wrong people.

Touya’s breathing wouldn’t calm down; his heart almost doubling its usual speed. Fury and pain both took over him, tears already gathering in his eyes. They had filled his head with the wrong ideals. They had _broke_ N.

… and he had made it worse.

N had finally started to see the world as it was, not behind hate tinted glasses. In the Celestial Tower he had called him the Hero of Truth, had called his statement of pokemon needing humans the _truth_ , he had understood. N wanted a world _with_ Touya, he had said. That was his ideal world, one in which every pokemon could be happy, one that had _Touya_ in it.

_’That’s still pretty gay…’_

“SHUT UP!” Nilbert jumped in a panic, scared from Touya’s sudden outburst. He had took his head in hands and had fallen to his knees, tears of pain and futility.

Nilbert poked at him, confused in why was Touya in the floor, quiet sobs coming out of his nose. He was the one that hurt N, why was _he_ sad?

“I’m sorry.” Touya said in a wobbly voice. “It’s all my fault.” Nilbert stared at him in bewilderment. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to. I was stupid, stupid, so fucking stupid.”

Nilbert tried to ask for forgiveness, a little confused. He didn’t want to make Touya _cry_ of all things.

The human didn’t listen to the Zorua and kept doing that strange noise with his nose. He had bitten his lip so hard that blood had started to come from it. Oh no, Nilbert was not dealing with this.

He poked around Touya’s belt until he found what he was looking for.  
  
Adrien came out of his pokeball extremely confused. He looked around the room, but the only thing he found was his trainer in the floor and _that_ stupid Zorua. He coiled around Nilbert with a fury he haven’t fell since… since 4 hours ago. The Zorua cried in pain, almost incapable of breathing. Adrien let his grip escape a little, and asked the Zorua what he had done. Nilbert responded that he had bitten him, but not _that_ hard. Adrien didn’t believe him at all.

“Leave him!” Touya almost shouted at Adrien. Both pokemon stared at him, confused. His eyes were red and his hair a disaster. “He did nothing. I-I’m the one who fucked up!”

Adrien’s eyes went wide, Touya said fuck?! Nilbert looked at Adrien confused, saying that he had said fuck just a moment before. This made Adrien even more preoccupied. The Serperior threw Nilbert to the floor to go to his trainer’s side. What was it? Had the stupid bush done something again?!

“Stop frowning. It wasn’t him.” Touya cleaned his tears, but it wasn’t enough. Adrien frowned. _No_ , N was the one in the side of Plasma, he had broke Touya's heart. “After I broke his! Look at this place. He couldn’t have chosen to not be part of Plasma! And yet I broke him”

Adrien shook his head, furious. No! How could Touya Believe that? Anyone could see the Bush was the bad one! The Serperior took Touya’s Xtransceiver from his pocket. “Hey! What are you doing?” Then shoved it in his face. “I’m not calling anyone!” Adrien insisted, everyone knows it was the bush’s fault. “Stop! Who could I call anyway? Cheren?! My mom?!” But Adrien kept pushing, he had to know someone else, right? “No, I don’t! I know no one else! That’s how pathetic is my life!” Adrien stopped and looked down. Touya was no pathetic, Touya was nice and cute and- “Wait what?! Stop, you overgrown snake.” He pushed Adrien’s face away from his and took his Xtransceiver back.

Adrien pushed him with his head. Touya rolled his eyes and turned the Xtransceiver on. There were around 20 missed calls from Cheren, 3 from the professor, another 4 from unknown numbers and 1 from his mother. He felt a pang of sadness, but ignored them.He went to his contact list and looked for someone. He only had his mom and his friends, it wasn’t like magically he could find someone that - ooh.

It ringed twice before someone picked up. “WHA THE ACSHUAL FUUUU.” Said a furious half asleep voice at the other side. “Is… is 2 AM, TOUYA. What the hel- are you crying?” From the other side of the screen appeared Hilda’s face. Her hair was all over the place and she could barely see with the bright light coming from her screen.. “Was it Cheren? I’m going to MURDER him when I come ba-”

“N-no! it wasn’t Cheren.”

“... Are you sure?”

“Yes yes, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have called I’ll-”

“No, no. You never call and you’re fucking crying, what the hell happened man?”

“I… could you…” Touya whispered the last part.

“What?! Speak louder!”

“Could you… tell Adrien it was my fault?”

White blinked repeatedly. “What?...Wha-who… Touya, is fuckign 2 am. Right about what?! Who the hell is Adrien? Did you finally got a boyfriend? Damn, took you long enough… although if is not Cheren, I just won that bet with your mom!”

“You WHAT?! NO. Adrien is my Serperior! And my mom bet what?!” The pokemon in question looked at the screen and waved at her with his tail.

“Nothing! Anyway, I have no idea what you’re talking about but no, it wasn’t your fault” Adrien cheered. “So good nig-”

“Wait, no! You didn’t even heard my story! It was _my_ fault.”

“... Your fault? Since when do you fuck things over?"

"Since always?!"

Hilda laughed out loud. "No, man, you're fine. Goodbye."

"Will you just listen?! I did something horr-"

"Touya! You’re the one calling at 2 fuckign am, so you’re the one that will hear _my_ story. Ok?”

“No!”

“Good, so there was once this super stupid kid that was super shy and never spoke with anyone. And one day this bullies were bulling his friends and because the kid was stupid - instead of telling the teacher about this - he went, a took a punch in the face for her. The stupid kid was also made of paper or something, so he broke his arm.”

“Wh-?!”

“Shut up! Stupid Kid also had a jerk friend. Jerkass believed to be the best at everything no matter what… until art class came for his ass. Jerkass was having a panic attack over failing fucking _art class_ of all things, so Stupid Kid decided to stay up all night and make a SECOND project, but Stupid couldn’t finish, so instead of making the intelligent thing - to let Jerkface just _fail_ already - he gave Jerk the finished project and gave the teacher the unfinished one as his. They both failed, anyway, because Cheren sucks too much drawing to had made that.”

“Stop!”

“You stop! The last one is about this super awesome champion! She was helping Prof Juniper out one day when she accidentally corrupted the database. I was fuckign crying, I had just destroyed the prof’s life of research and it was all my stupid fault. But then you found me crying under the table and offered to help me fix the database and brought blankets and food and we stayed up all night trying to do something and failing horrible. And at the end the Professor found out and yelled at me for not telling her and not knowing about backups.” Touya could see some tears in her face.

“... You just told about 3 other times I fucked up?”

“No! You idiot! I told of 3 times WE fucked up... minus Bianca, because Bianca is awesome - and you came and took the punch for us and broke your arm anyway… for us. So I don’t know what happened nor why you’re calling me at 2am but I know something and that’s you! You would never do something wrong because you want to do something wrong. We fuck up and… and I don’t fucking know. I’m tired and I want to punch Cheen and sleep. Touya, don’t stay up crying at 2am for something that might or might not be your fault. Just... fix that shit and let me sleep. Ok? Call me later?”

She hanged up, already looking more dead than alive. Touya looked down at his Xtransceiver. Adrien looked smug, clearly saying ‘I told you’.

Touya sighted, turned off his Xtransceiver before someone called again and stood up. “...Come on… let’s look for N.” Adrien rolled his eyes, but followed him nonetheless. What he did for his idiot. Nilbert looked at them both and decided that maybe Touya was not so bad.

The three of them ran the rest of the way, guided by the Zorua towards were N was.

Touya was an idiot that fucked up, he was useless and pathetic and might have been the cause behind the end of the world… and that was not ok. He had self esteem issues and was incapable of taking decisions. But even then, even if he had a long way to go before growing like a person… he would still help N.

He stood before the door to the throne room. The sound of the fountains the only sound accompanying them. Maybe Touya would never walk out of that door ever again, but if entering it meant he could have a chance at fixing his errors, that he could tell N that yes - he wanted a world in which both humans and pokemon could be happy, in which N could be happy…

He opened the doors. He had come to take a punch and break his arm, better make it quick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alt chapter title: In which I try to World Build and have a good emotional arc but fail.
> 
> Originally this chapter was going to end just before summoning Reshiram, but is already too damn long and chapter 10 would have been extremely short and boring. 
> 
> I lied, Hilda is the most fun character to write. I should kick Touya out of here and make Hilda the protagonist. She and Touya's mom totally betted who would Touya end up dating, Mom said Cheren totally had a crush on Touya, but Hilda said Cheren wasn't his type.
> 
> CHEREN’S TEAM SUCKS. And Audrey is a hacked Cubchoo! … or from the anime universe (?)
> 
> Also, sadly numerous parts of this chapter had to be changed because they sucked, in the process we lost gems like:  
>  _’But you wanted green ass’_  
>  Touya walking on some grunts playing Go Fish and then others making out.  
> Actual appearances from the Muses and the Shadow Triad.
> 
> Glorious cut lines from Hilda:  
> “W-wha-Touya, you-you...useless homosexual, you fell for a crazy activist?!”  
> “Holy shit, WHAT?! That’s like a marriage proposal?!”  
> “TOUYA, WHAT THE FUUCK?! I’M GOING TO MURDER HIM. THE BREAKING YOUR OWN ARM WAS NOT LITERAL. GOD DAMN IT.”


	10. Truth

Every region had a legend. One that told the story of the fantastical creatures that had given form to the world. Unova was not different, yet...

It’s legend wasn’t about the Sea, the Earth and Sky fighting for dominance.

It wasn’t about the powerful beings that protected Time and Space.

It wasn’t the tale of Life and Death.

No. This legend was different.

The tales that Touya had grow up with were about two brothers. One sought for the truth, while the other pursued for his ideals. Their hateful war destroying the Great Grey Dragon that had created the land.

Touya never understood why. Why would the brothers fight? Why would this bring such a conflict? It wasn’t like the Sea and the Earth, it wasn’t like Life and Death.

Why was there a Hero of Ideals and a Hero of Truth? Why did they had to hate each other?

At his 16 years of age, Touya didn’t held any answers. Even after traveling and training and meeting so many people, he was still the shy, indecisive boy that had played made belief with his friends so long ago.

And that same boy stood here, today. In Plasma’s throne room.

N’s throne room.

It was wide and beautiful, a fountain surrounding the path that lead to the throne. The man himself was sitting there, more uncomfortable than proud. A sad figure in a place too big for it.

“N…” Touya whispers. He could almost see how N’s breath hitches.

“Why did you come?” N’s knuckles go white as he grasp the armrest like a lifeline.

“I… I wanted…” Touya took a deep breath. “I want to apologies. I was sad and mad a-and stupid in the Celestial Tower.” He moved side to side, anxious. “I ran because I didn’t want to deal with it and that was stupid and I should have stayed and listened because… because… it sounded like... the best idea ever?” Goddammit, not even in the important moments, in those that did matter, could he actually say something right?! He furiously passes his hands through his hair.

Touya looked back at N, hoping to see something in his face. He found more than what he expected.

N looked confused - no, conflicted. Had Touya’s words changed something? Was there still hope to fix all of this?

"... You apologize a lot."

"Eh?"

"Why would you apologize to me?"

"Eh? W-why wouldn't I?" Touya's voice sounded wrong, a little maniac. "I... I did something bad to you?! I fucked up?!” N was looking at him strangely, as if Touya had gone crazy.

“You’re sorry… for being mad at me?”

“Of course! I hurt you!” N’s eyes went wide. His breathing appeared to stop. “I was wrong! I shouldn’t have done that! Please, forgive me.” Touya extended his hand and looked up with pleading eyes.

He could fix this, he could help N!

“Dragon Pulse.”

Touya couldn’t breath, he couldn’t move. He felt a terrible horrible force pass through his body. A painful shout ripped through his throat.

Touya’s body flew through the air, crashing in the water. He cried in pain as he hit the bottom with his shoulder. His hands burned, his face burned. The pain wouldn’t stop. He couldn’t stop the tears. Had his pokemon felt _this_ in battle? had he done that to them?

He thinks he can hear N talking with someone, but a terrible beep in his ears wouldn’t let him hear.

Touya rolled around, feeling every one of his muscles cry in pain as he looked back at his attacker.

A Hydreigon hovered over a green haired man in strange robes. It was Plama’s spokesman.

Adrien cries out in furry, calling forth a Leaf Storm with all his might.

“Fire Blast.”

Adrien’s attack is eating by the infernal flames, as if it was nothing. The Serperior tried to move away, but it was too late.

“ADRIEN!” Touya shouts, as the flames start to eat the Serperior alive. Pure, unadulterated adrenaline runs through Touya’s veins. He pushes himself up with his arms and runs. One step, two, three - but he falls, his jaw colliding with the floor. His legs had given on him.

Touya rapidly coughs all the water he had breathed. He can feel a terrible pain in his lower jaw, but ignores it. He had to save Adrien.

“ _Lord_ N.” Ghetsis says, as Touya calls Adrien back to his pokeball. “What do you think you’re doing?”

N doesn’t answer, more preoccupied looking at Touya let Adrien out to take care of him; he was crying.

“I asked you. What do you think you’re doing?” N hadn’t noticed how near Ghetsis had gotten. He was furious.

“I-I…” N cowered in his throne, trying to appear as small as possible. From his peripheral visión he could see Adrien move, Touya returning him to his pokeball. “...Y-you hurt them…” He almost whispers.

“I think you’re confused. They’re our enemies. He’s a trainer. He has only come to stop your ideals. Don’t you remember? He denied them in the Celestial tower. He’s too scared of Zekrom’s power. The moment you give your back to him, he’ll hurt you again.”

N pressed his lips together; it was getting hard to breath...

“Shut up.” Ghetsis turned around. There, wet and trembling, stood Touya. He could barely stand.

Ghetsis laughed. “Don’t even try, boy-”

“I say. Shut. Up.”

Ghetsis frowned, looking back at N. “Call Zekrom.”

“B-but-”

“Don’t you see? He wants to hurt you.”

“NO, I Don’t!!”

“Like in the Tower…”

N closed his eyes, passing both hands through his face. Why couldn’t he just hide from all of this?

The castle tremble, an unknown source of light coming from behind the throne. Zekrom roared, in its wake destroying the walls of the castle.

A strangled shout came from Touya. He stepped backwards and rapidly lost his balance, falling once more into the water. It was here, it was here, it was here. Touya’s heart started to beat faster and faster, his breathing not being left behind.

Zekrom’s red eyes looked at Touya. He dragged himself backwards in fear.

“Weren’t you a Hero, boy?” Ghetsis laughed. “Maybe the legendary dragons like pathetic people.”

Touya’s eyes went wide. Had he just called N… pathetic?

Static had gathered around Zekrom.

 _’...all those LIES that someone told him!’_ \- _’They had filled his head with the wrong ideals. They had broke N.’_ \- It was this man. He had done that. It was him, it was him.

Touya’s hair stood up, the sound of electricity around Zekrom body a booming noise in the room.

_’Show him the Truth!’_

Zekrom rose in a blue ball of light, roaring.

“AMARA!” The Excadrill came out with a cry, taking full on Zekrom’s attack, her ground type completely nullifying it.

Touya stood up, gritting his teeth, fury running through his veins. “It’s you! You’re that bastard!” His heart hadn’t calmed down yet, he still had a hard time standing, but something inside of him had been freed, something that wouldn’t stop until he destroyed that man’s life as much as he had destroyed N.

“N! Don’t listen to him!” Touya shouted running towards him.

“And… and why would I listen to _you_?” Static started to cover Zekrom once more, ready to protect his hero from whatever was making him feel distress.

“B-because… I… I want a world in which human and pokemon can live together, forever.” Touya could hear Amara’s fight against the Hydreigon in the distance.

“A-and if that’s a lie?” Zekrom stepped forwards, making Touya stop immediately.

“No! I would never lie to you! Not like him!”

N stayed quiet.

“Please! N! Don’t listen to him! He lied to you! He hurt you and-and… He hurt Adrien.” Touya could feel the tears gathering in his eyes; he couldn’t blink them away. “I-I just want...”

“What?”

“A… a world with...you.” Touya looked to the side.

“W-wha-why?!”

“B-because... because… I want pokemon to be happy?”

“No! Why would you want a world with _me_!”

“B-because…”

“Why?”

“Because… I.. I..” Touya mouthed something, but N couldn’t hear.

“WHY?!”

“Because I like you!” It was as if time had stopped. Something pulsed.

“W-what?”

“I like… I like your smile and when-when you are nice to pokemon and… get excited about things I don’t understand like ferris wheels and and magnetic caves…” The pulsing got faster and faster and faster.

“Eh?”

“I-I fell in love with you! Ok?!”

N looked at him with big wide eyes. He denied Touya’s words with his head, that couldn’t be.

“Yes yes yes! I-I want… I want to go to the beach with you and have a fancy dinner and get kicked out because we were be too loud and meet strange pokemon and… and I want… to make you smile.”

It was hot. It was so so hot. It burned like the sun, the heat almost palpable. N gasped at something. Touya turned around.

It was the White Orb. Pulsing back to life, it’s heat evaporating the water in the room. Why? Was the Hero near? But who?! Alder was unconscious… Was it a Gym Leader? No, no, maybe… Cheren?

The orb stopped pulsing -

“Idiot.” A voice said.

Just to renown it immediately. Faster faster faster, so fast that light started to emanate from it. A burst leaving everyone blind for a moment.

“Took you long enough.” The voice was near, so so near…

Touya looked up, and saw it.

White, so so white. It was tall, taller than Zekrom itself. It’s blue eyes a window in a sea of clouds.

And it was looking at him.

“Close your mouth, you look ridiculous.”

But Touya did not, he only shook his head, too shocked to think at all.

“Goddammit kiddo. Think for a moment. I am Reshiram! The Vast White Dragon of Truth!” The creature said, raising its wings in the air.

Zekrom roared back, electricity gathering around its body.

Reshiram replies with one of its own.

The two dragons rose from the floor, Zekrom already preparing a Fusion Bolt.

“I’m surrounded by idiots.” Touya could hear Reshiram’s playful voice as it sent out a Dragon Breath.

Zekrom cried out in pain, as it went flying towards a wall, making the whole building shake as it collided with it, leaving yet another hole in the structure.

The Black dragon roared yet again, retaliating with a Dragon Claw. “Oh, shit.” Touya heard Reshiram say, as it rapidly flew out of the way, this time leaving a hole in the roof.

Debris fell on top of Touya’s head, a cracking noise coming from the roof. He felt a hand grab him by the hood of his jacket, violently hauling him backwards. It was only seconds later that part of the roof fell, mere meters away from were Touya had been just moments before. Touya looked over his shoulder, still shocked. N was behind him, still holding him.

Touya looked back at him with big and confused eyes. He wanted to ask what had happened, what was going on, but no word came out from his mouth, he could only gesture.

“I… I told you. You’re the Hero of Truth.” N looked at Touya in a strange way, as if he had never seen him before.

“N-no.” Touya said in a hoarse voice. “I-I’m not.”

Touya could hear Reshiram’s roar in the distance, it sounded suspiciously like a scolding.

“I-it was someone else, it must hav-”

“No. It’s you… You… you were telling the truth.” Touya ran from N’s eyes, feeling heat rise to his cheeks.

“You good-for-nothing boy!” Ghetsis roared as Amara’s body flew through the air, too tired to have been able to escape Hydreigon’s latest Focus Blast. “You dare to share the Harmonia name with me?!” Touya rapidly returned Amara to her ball.

Hydreigon was already preparing another Dragon Pulse. Arc jumped out to the fight, defending Touya and N from the imminent attack, barely resisting its power.

“A-aqua Jet!” Touya ordered, Arc immediately flying towards the Brutal pokemon.

“Pathetic!” Ghetsis shouted, Arc’s attack doing nothing to Hydreigon. The dragon turning around and biting the last of Arc’s energy.

“Ice Punch!” Touya shouted, Audrey being right behind Hydreigon, but it was too late. Hydreigon rapidly turned around and slammed the Cubchoo into the ground with its tail.

Touya rapidly returned both to their pokeballs, barely saving them from a Fire Blast that had easily melted the tiles of the floor.

“N. Stop this nonsense. That trainer is the enemy!” Hydreigon prepared yet another Dragon Pulse. Panic started to rise inside of Touya. Neither Amir nor Ariana were capable of resisting that, they were going to be blasted through the castle walls.

Reshiram roared, it’s violent landing shaking the castle yet again, the tiles under its feet cracking. The Pulse collided with Reshiram’s body, the White Dragon immediately answering with one of its own. Hydreigon was launched through the wall, making yet another hole.

Reshiram turned its head, trying to see if Touya was alright, but before they could do so, a Dragon Breath came from the sky, making Reshiram cry in pain.

“Kid! Calm the bush down!” B-bush?! “Zekrom will keep attacking me if you don’t!” Zekrom swooped down, clawing at Reshiram. The White Dragon barely evaded it, launching a Flamethrower to maintain the other as far away as possible.

Touya looked at N. He was hyperventilating, confused. Touya turned around. “N!” He took the other man’s hand, but N rapidly took it away.

“I-I… I’m sorry.” Touya says, but N starts to rapidly shake his head.

Touya covers his face with his hands as he hears another of Reshiram’s cries. He looks around, trying to think in _something_ , but nothing comes… nothing but the cries of pain of Ghetsis.

Touya looked at him. Ghetsis was being bitten by Nilbert, the little Zorua stopping the man from sending out another pokemon.

“Damn thing!” Ghetsis shouted. He shook his feet, making Nilbert fall. The sage then proceeded to kick the Zorua half way through the destroyed room.

“N! Don’t you remember? We have a plan!” Nilbert roared, as he stood up with difficulties. Ghetsis walked forward, kicking Nilbert yet again as the little Zorua tried to Tackle him. “but if you won’t get rid of this trainer, I will!”

N crawled towards Nilbert’s beaten body, cradling him.

Ghetsis let out the rest of his team. Touya took N by his shirt, hauling him before a Flamethrower from the Eelektross could hit him.

There was no way Touya could win against that with only Amir and Ariana. “R-reshiram!” Touya cried out.

“I’m a little occupied.”

“W-what?!”

“Oh, also. Please run.” Touya looked around until he saw them. Falling from the sky, he could see Reshiram’s body being tackled by Zekrom. Before he could even move out of the way, they collided. Crashing through the floor, shaking everything around them. Floor after floor broke under the force of both dragons, every single person in the building shouting in panic.

“Anthea! Concordia!” N shouted, but nothing came. He looked up, toward Ghetsis, panic in his eyes.

The castle kept violently shaking, even when Reshiram and Zekrom had stopped their descend. Was everything going to fall?!

“Get us out of here!” Ghetsis shouted. N stood in place, not sure what to answer.

Touya looked back at the hole that the dragons had formed. He could hear something coming from below.

“Touya!!” Someone shouted. It was Cheren.

“But Anthea and Concordia.” N responded to Ghetsis.

“Cheren, what are you doing?!” an unidentified voice said, it must have been a Gym Leader.

“There’s no time!” Ghetsis shouted furiously.

“Touya’s up there! We have to go for him!” Cheren cried.

N kept looking at Ghetsis with big, tearful eyes.

“There’s no time!” the Leader shouted as well.

“NO! LET ME GO! TOUYAAA!” Cheren cried, his voice disappearing in the distance.

“NO!” N cried too. “Y-you… you… Anthea and Concordia.” Touya could hear the tears in N’s voice.

“What do you care for two useless-?!”

“DON’T CALL THEM THAT!” Touya felt his hair stand up, static gathering. He heard a low growl and turned around.

It was Zekrom, covered in blue static. It was furious.

“Don’t you dare, boy!” But Zekrom roared, letting out multiple lightning strikes in the already unsteady structure.

“N!” Touya shouted as the shakes got stronger.

“Anthea and Concordia, w-we have to… we have to find them.”

“N! Wait!” Touya shouted again, but the shakes of the castle were getting worse and worse and his voice wouldn’t be heard.

“Y-you want to leave them?!” N shouted, Zekrom’s static started to get out of control, the tell tale signs of Fusion Bolt already appearing.

“N!” Touya took N by the wrist. “We have to go.” He said with a hoarse voice.

“Anthea and Concordia-” He looked back, with tears in his eyes.

“If we are crushed by the castle, who’s going to look for them?!”

N looked back at him, confused. “You want to find them?”

“Yes!”

“Why?”

“B-because… they are important to you, right?” N’s eyes widened. He wanted to say something but nothing came out, so - instead - he graved Touya by the shoulders and hugged him.

Touya’s breathing stopped, his heart going past the speed limit. He tried to hug N back, but the position was a little awkward thanks to how goddammit tall the other was.

“Sorry for ruining the moment BUT WE’RE GOING TO DIE.” Reshiram shouted in Touya’s ear. The Dragon had emerged from the hole in the floor, really beaten up. Touya could hear the foundations of the castle start to break. There was truly no time.

He tried to stand up, but after a day of going up and being thrown around, his legs wouldn’t respond. Reshiram sighted and took both with their wings, leaving them in his neck.

“Hold tight!” Reshiram shouted, flapping their wings, trying to take flight. Touya graved Reshiram’s neck with all his strength, hoping it wouldn’t hurt them. Meanwhile, N was holding tightly to Touya. This would have been the greatest thing ever, but sadly for Touya this was not the moment.

Before Reshiram could properly rise, the first floor gave up. Everything came down immediately.

Touya heard a shout, it was Ghetsis. The floor in which the man had been standing fell, leading him to his doom.

The world around Touya appeared to slow down. Ghetsis fall, the collapse of the castle, N’s hat falling to the ground as Reshiram flies away. Everything was as if in a dream. Because this had to be a dream, right? He was still at home. He was still good old Touya. He was no Hero...

But the hands in his waist told him otherwise, because N was real. He had truly stolen the White Orb from Cheren, called Hilda in tears and summoned the Legendary White Dragon by confessing to the man behind him.

And now, they were flying in the sky above the League, the castle no more than a memory now. From up here Touya could see how the Victory Road had also collapsed, leaving no exit apart from flying away. The League itself appeared intact, people gathering at the top of the temple. There wasn’t that many of them, he could identify all of the Gym Leaders, along with some Plasma grunts and the other 6 sages. He could see Cheren, hiding behind a pillar, away from everyone else.

“There!” N shouted, sounding far more alive than the last time he had heard him speak. He was pointed towards the Temple, where two people that Touya couldn’t identify were looking up.

“I-it’s that Ant-eh, Athe- no…”

“Anthea and Concordia!” He sounded happy, Touya couldn’t help but smile.

“Gaaaay.” Reshiram said, Touya kicked the dragon back. “Hey! I’m being honest.”

Touya raised his head, there, not too far away from them, were some helicopters. One was from the news channel, _of course_ , but the other was from the police. Touya’s body went stiff. They were going to take N, weren’t they?

“N…”

“Umm?”

“D-don’t go…”

N looked confused at him. “Where?”

“Somewhere… where you don’t want to go?”

N looked confused to the side, as if he was a Noctowl. “Why would I do that?”

Touya let out a laugh. “Then… would you stay with me?”

N looked to the side. “In… Unova? but... I … I’m not… I’m not welcome here, am I?”

Touya laughed yet again, it sounded empty. “Neither… Neither I am.” He stole from Cheren, let the Champion get hurt, and now… would he really let the police take N away?

“...We could go somewhere else.” N proposed, looking bashfully to the side.

Touya turned around and looked at N, truly thinking about it. Would he be able to leave all of them behind? Mom, the Professor, Bianca… Cheren? Could he leave them all behind for N? … the question wasn’t that… Was he ready to deal with the fallout of his actions?

“It’s that a no?”

Touya shook his head. “I’ve fucked up. I hurt you and Cheren and Bianca and my mom… I can’t go back.”

“... You could apologize.”

“Do you think they would forgive me for all that?”

“I did.”

Touya’s breath hitched, his eyes going wide. “You… did?”

“It’s logical. You have been saying the truth, no? Why else would the White Dragon come?” From his belt, N took something. It was Touya’s lost hat, dirty and crumbled and starting to fray, but his nonetheless.

Touya smiled. “What you asked in the Celestial Tower… about making a world in which pokemon and humans could be happy… I want that.” He felt the heat raising in his cheeks. “So… even if they forgave me… I would still choose to go with you.”

N brighten up, smiling a small but sweet smile, it made Touya’s heart burst. N hugged Touya with all his strength, the meaning of personal space something N never learned. Nilbert cried out in pain, being crushed by both of them.

Touya laughed. “Sorry, Nilbert.” The Zorua just huffed, and jumped into N’s mop of hair.

N smiled and took Touya’s hand. “You could also teach me… how to be a normal human.”

Touya snorted. “Me? Teach you something? You’re fine as you’re.”

N looked disconcerted, a blush finally appearing in his face. “Truly?”

“Y-you want me to repeat myself?”

“Yes.” N said, firmly.

Touya looked bashful to the side. “I… I like… your smile and… when you get excited about things I can’t even comprehend and… and when you talk with pokemon and… and your smile…”

“You’re repeating yourself.” N laughed.

“H-hey!” But N kept laughing. He hugged Touya once more,as he looked him in the eyes. He decided to kiss him then.

“Aaah!” Both shouted as their noses collided, hard. Touya took it into his hands, it wasn’t broken, was it?!

“I-I’m sorry.” N looked defeated. It made Touya’s heart hurt.

“Do it properly!” Reshiram shouted. It made to Touya all the sense of the world.

Touya took N’s head with his hands and kissed him. It was messy and weird, maintaining their noses from colliding being harder that it should have been. Touya was pretty sure it didn’t work like that but god dammit, it was nice to have N's arms in his neck, so near him.

Reshiram laughed in delight making Touya’s whole face go red. Nilbert laughed too, from behind N. Touya rolled his eyes, why was he stuck with this people?

“So, far away is our destination, right?” Reshiram asked.

“As far as we can go." Replied Touya, still holding N in his arms.

"... Are you sure of this?"

"Yes."

Reshiram snorted. "Is not my problem if later you do regret this." The Dragon flapped their wings and roared, Zekrom in the distance answering back as they also came near them.

The sun was finally starting to come out, a new day appearing as if Touya had not just destroyed his own life in one kiss.

Maybe... maybe he was not the old Touya anymore as he believed. The Touya of old would have never dared to take this choice, to leave everything behind for a stupid ideal. But he had taken it. He had traveled and trained and meet so many people that had teached him so many things. Hilda had showed him how taking bold risk could pay off, even if Cheren said it was stupid. Bianca, on the other hand, had showed him that failure was ok; this might not be the way, this could truly be the worse choice he had ever done, but at the end of it he would still be there, living another day and learning from his mistakes.

And N… N had teached him the truth. The legends weren’t about opposites; Reshiram and Zekrom didn’t want to fight. Because - like Truth and Ideals, like people and pokemon….

They were meant to be together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That last line is pure cheese and I love it.
> 
> Alt title: Tone? what's that?!
> 
> YOU SEE THIS CHAPTER!??!? NOTHING WENT AS PLANNED!  
> There was going to be a battle between N and Touya, Ghetsis wasn’t going to DIE?!?!?! And the way they ended in a journey was going to be less stupid, but hey, apparently I have 0 control over what I write ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
